Estimated reading time: 18 minutes
Yiwu Market is the largest small commodity wholesale market in the world. It is the place where you can find Amazon’s best sellers products and the manufacturing place. In 2023, Yiwu had a total of 78,8 billion USD in imports and exports.
The market area is divided into five districts covering an area of 4 million square meters for 75,000 booths, where 100,000 suppliers exhibit 400,000 kinds of products.
In this article, I will show you all about how to source products from Yiwu and sell them on Amazon.
Do you Know the History of Yiwu Market?
Many people have experienced buying from China, but they don’t know how Yiwu Market has become the world’s largest wholesale market.
If you are interested in the Yiwu story, let go ahead.
a) The story of “Sugar for the Chicken Feathers”
Time is traveling.
Let’s go back to the days when there were only black-and-white photographs.
Yiwu City has a long history of doing business and is well known for “sugar for the chicken feathers.”
The saying “sugar for the chicken feathers” refers to the age when small business hawkers walked along the streets and lanes. They exchanged low-priced items such as brown sugar for chicken feathers from residents’ homes to obtain a profit.
They used the sugar to exchange the feathers, which needed to be good enough for a feather duster. These feathers were by-products selected from roosters.
The small business people know how to add value by exchanging items with one another. The sugar exchange is the embryonic form and cornerstone of the Yiwu Market.
b) The first generation of the Yiwu Market
With the rise of the reform and open policy, handmade products and agricultural products slowly made their way to the market. On August 25, 1982, the Leader Group of the Rectified Towns of Yiwu County issued a notice. It proclaimed that starting from September 5 of that year, the Yiwu Small Commodity Market would officially open, with one in Qingmen Lake and the other in Sanli Town.
This decision was historic. It was full of adventurism at that particular time and a firm determination to develop the Yiwu Market. The first generation of the small commodity market in Yiwu was born.
The small market officially opened on September 5, 1982, in Huqingmen Town. There were no fireworks, no flags fluttering, and no leader on the scene.
People carried baskets and cloth bags, and they traded for what they needed.
Xu Zhichang was the deputy director of the Industrial and Commercial Office Specializing in the Huqingmen Market. He remembers that the business of Huqingmen at that time was very prosperous. Later, more and more people were doing business. The consequence is that the booths extended from Huqingmen to Xinma Road.
Later, the county government added booths, each with a rent of 2,000 yuan (RMB/CNY) per year. At that time, the average monthly salary was only 30 or 40 yuan (360–480 yuan per year). Everyone wondered how much money a booth could earn in a year. Would anyone be willing to pay so much rent? The result was unexpected, and the booths rented out in a few days.
c) The second generation of the Yiwu Market
On December 6, 1984, the second generation of the Yiwu Market—the Xinma Road Market—was officially renamed the Yiwu Small Commodity Market. The merchants moved into cement booths. The market’s roof made of a steel frame and glass tiles blocked heavy rain.
d) The third generation of the Yiwu Market
Two years later, the market moved for the third time. It moved to the city roadside, investing 4.4 million yuan. The new market covers an area of 44,000 square meters with 4,096 fixed booths and more than 1,000 temporary booths. The market turnover in that year exceeded 100 million yuan.
e) The fourth generation of the Yiwu Market
In 1992, the market moved for the fourth time. The fourth generation of the Yiwu Small Commodity Market—Huang Yuan Market—was officially completed.
At that time, the Huang Yuan Market had four floors and was divided into various areas. The counters are very similar to those in vegetable markets. Each booth is about one meter long.
f) The fifth generation of the Yiwu Market
Yiwu International Trade City is the fifth generation of the Yiwu Small Commodity Market.
China Yiwu International Trade City is located on the prosperous Chouzhou Road. It is a landmark building and a modern extension of the small commodity market. It now has a business area of more than four million square meters and 70,000 business positions.
g) The Moden Yiwu Market (largest small commodity wholesale market)
Yiwu International Trade City is one of the largest small commodity export bases in China. In 2005, it was the authority of the United Nations, the World Bank, and Morgan Stanley. It’s known as “the world’s largest small commodity wholesale market.”
Yiwu is a giant, but high is always subjective. It may be the world’s largest small commodity market. Low-grade, low-tech, low-value-added products also mark the market. It is at the low end of the industrial chain.
In Yiwu, “transformation” is a word that people often say. Wherever they go, they can see the “new starting point of the new Silk Road” and “the chicken feathers for sugar.”
One merchant at the Yiwu Market admits that the ever-increasing labor costs, competition from emerging countries, the impact of e-commerce, and the pressure on the RMB exchange rate are always an issue and could change at any time.
From offline to online, from “sugar for the chicken feather” to “global e-commerce,” Yiwu has been ranked first in China’s top 100 e-commerce countries for four consecutive years. Yiwu is on its way to a national e-commerce demonstration city. Yiwugo is one of the results generated by the local government to support buyers who want to import from China.
The Yiwu market wholesale website was created by the Yiwu government and the Zhejiang China Commodity City Group Co., Ltd. It aims to create an online Yiwu Wholesale market all over the world. The core, when importing and buying wholesale from China, is to find the right product. You can browse the website and have a basic idea about whether you can find the exact product in Yiwu.
Where to Find Suppliers in Yiwu?
1) Futian Market Location: The market is located in Jinhua City, the central part of Zhejiang Province, China. It is 260 kilometers from Shanghai and 200 kilometers from Ningbo City.
There is an airport and a railway station in Yiwu City. (Yiwu Airport: IATA: YIW, ICAO: ZSYW). It takes around 1 hour and 40 minutes if you travel from Shanghai to Yiwu by the bullet train.
Yiwu City benefits from its advantageous location, which is near the two largest Ports in China: Shanghai Port and Ningbo Port.
Each year, nearly 500,000 foreign merchants import products from China Yiwu. There are more than 15,000 overseas merchants from more than 100 countries and regions stationed in Yiwu. The products are exported to more than 210 countries and territories around the world. Yiwu has attracted more than 20 multinational retail groups, such as Walmart and Metro, and more than 30 well-known domestic supermarket chains.
2) Yiwu International Trade City Marke: Chouzhou Road, Yiwu
Many Amazon top sellers are buying products from the market, so many best-selling items on Amazon come from Yiwu.
Yiwu International Trade City is the largest wholesale market in China. It also is known as the “Futian Market”—that’s what the local authority calls it because it is located in the Futian area of Yiwu.
People also name it the Yiwu Small Commodity Market, as it’s the name that defines its category and influence. To those who want to import from China, you can find almost any products in the Yiwu Market.
Did you ever buy popular stuff from online shop sites like Aliexpress? What I can share is that many Aliexpress best sellers are wholesale products from the Yiwu International Trade City.
The Yiwu Market has a total of five districts for products in different categories.
Four Different Kinds of Wholesale Booths in Yiwu Market
Before you explore the Yiwu mark and find the top-selling items on Amazon, you need to know more about the Chinese merchants sitting in the booths. They could be the manufacturer representative in the market, a family-owned workshop, a trading company, a brand dealer, and so on. How can you identify each of them?
a) Manufacturer Representative Booth
Manufacturer representative booths usually are medium- to large-size booths with several young salespeople who can speak English. They have catalogs and samples displayed in the booth, so you may ask for them if you want them.
Please remember to ask if they focus on the export business or the domestic market. To do this is to confirm whether the booth owner can do OEM service for your business or not.
Check the sample quality if you are interested in the specific product. Visiting the market provides you with a chance to check so many samples on-site instead of sending them separately to your office. Furthermore, it allows you to talk with the guys who might work for your project in the future! You can check another article about Buying Product Samples from China.
b) Middleman
There are lots of middlemen in the Yiwu market. They don’t own the factory, but they work with the factory. Middleman booths may be located in an excellent position in the market to generate more traffic. You might be able to see various popular products at their booth, but the merchandise might come from different factories.
Note: Please remember that over 95% of the middlemen would claim that they own the factory. Just remember that they are working with the factory not owning the factory 🙂
It does not mean you can’t work with the middlemen. Compared to the factories, the middleman might put more focus on service and quality control. China factories usually focus on production, but they might neglect the quality, especially for those small-medium-size factories.
Make sure the trader can work with you proactively and cooperate with you well. A test order can help you to determine whether the middleman can manage the order well or not.
Language: most of them can understand English words such as “price,” “how much,” and numbers.
Since the traders are very familiar with the market, then you can ask them what’s the best items on Amazon because they have a lot of connections in the wholesale market!
c) Family-Owned Workshop
There are quite a lot of family-owned businesses in the Yiwu Market. The wives work as the salespeople while the husbands are running a small workshop (3-4 staff). If you have any product tech topics, then we would suggest you talk to the husband directly.
The workshop is just like a small assembling factory, which means they purchase all the essential components for assembling a final product.
For example, let’s assume that you find a stationery booth, and there are 300 different mechanical pencils. Does the booth owner own all the molds for making the mechanical pencils—especially for the penholders?
In most cases, the booth owner would not invest in so many different molds, which cost a lot of money. They may own some molds, but not all. Instead, the family-owned workshop would purchase the penholders and other components from their sources and assemble the pencils at their workshop to get the lowest price.
The price in the Yiwu Market can be very competitive because the booth owners are running a tiny “factory” at a minimum cost. However, every coin has two sides. The quality you get from the family-owned workshop will rely on the owner’s management skills of his small team and his mindset about business. If you want to issue a strict factory audit, then most of the family workshops are unable to meet the compliance requirements. However, they can be your partner if you pursue a low-priced product.
Achieving a balance between price and quality is one of the top challenges when sourcing in the Yiwu market. You need to take your time and find your best match.
d) Brand Dealer
Brand dealers have a clear product line or provide several brands with similar products. One of the purposes of showing their products in the market is to tell the customers about their general ability to consolidate many different resources, which makes them competitive in a specific industry.
How can you benefit when working with the brand dealers in Yiwu?
Imagine that you want 20 balancing scooters, and the brand manufacturer’s MOQ is 100 PCS. During that case, you may approach a brand dealer who can sell you at a lower quantity as they usually have the stock in their warehouse.
Communication with brand dealers depends on the salesperson’s language level.
Please always analyze your business before connecting with different types of businesspeople when exploring the Yiwu market.
How to Source Products from Yiwu Market?
1. Narrow Down the Target Sourcing Area and Make a Timeline
There are five large districts in Yiwu International Trade City, and it is more than four million square meters. You might need to narrow down the category, which enables you to keep up your energy to find the right source. Make a timeline if you have multiple target products and don’t want to waste too much time on a single product.
2. Take Notes About the Suppliers You Meet
The note-taking process could be similar to what you do at the Canton Fair. Yes, you can also refer to this article about Attending the Canton Fair. I hope to be able to help you.
Always staple the name card into your notebook and write down the necessary information about the product. This step will help you recall the specific product you found in the market after you have visited many different booths.
You can ask for the samples when visiting a booth or when you are back at your office to check the quality. Use your smartphone to take a photo when you find the right product and also under the permission of the booth owner.
3. Finding and Winning the Support of a Target Supplier is the Key
Who’s going to develop and produce the products for your business? Yes. The suppliers. It’s so important to work with a supplier properly matter you are a startup company, importer, retailer, or wholesaler.
The key is to find a supplier who’s able to work with you well. You need a supplier who can help you mock up the sample, check the quality, and finish the production on time. The reason why you want to import from China is for a low price with decent quality, and that all depends on how the supplier can support you.
If the supplier views you as an essential customer with high potential for future business, then they will take care of your business and pay more attention to the details.
The Yiwu Market booth owners usually do not speak English well, so be prepared for this or find an interpreter or sourcing agent for your business trip. A sourcing agent can help you resolve the communication issue and help with the follow-up work during the order process.
You can download the Yiwu market distribution map for free,
Yiwu-Market-District-Map Download
4. Check the Sample Quality and the Defective Points Before Place the order
Quality control is a priority. Every importer should resolve the product’s potential quality issue in China instead of solving it in your country. Yiwu market is full of low-cost small commodities, so you should pay attention to those at extremely low prices. After all, the wool still comes from the sheep’s back.
Sometimes the Chinese merchants want to sell it in large quantities with its low-price strategy. To achieve that strategy, the supplier may neglect or sacrifice the product’s quality. Please don’t overly trust the sample quality displayed at their booth because that represents the highest standard of quality. A further quality check is essential.
5. Find a sourcing agent to help you source products from Yiwu to sell on Amazon
If you want to find the most sold products on Amazon and get them from China, working with a reliable China sourcing agent is a good option.
a) A Sourcing Agent knows the wholesale market and how to deal with local merchants
“A fisherman who lives in the Amazon River knows where to fish in the Amazon.”
A lot of the world’s leading chain stores or supermarkets have set their procurement offices in China, which allows them to buy directly from these regions without the hassle. That is why large retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target, Michaels, Lowe’s, Aldi, and Home Depot have established local offices in China. They hired local employees to strengthen their supply chains and drive more value.
You can feel the value of hiring local employees when issues occur in the ordering process. The sourcing agents could implement a factory on-site inspection immediately when there is a quality issue.
b) Sourcing Agents Find You the Best Supplier and Competitive Price
By knowing the different resources in China, the sourcing agents know where to find the most workable suppliers at a competitive price. It differentiates from foreign buyers who mainly get the vendors from trade shows or online wholesale websites like Alibaba.com, Made in China, and Global Source when they intend to import from China.
Also Read: Other Websites Like Alibaba to Source
An experienced sourcing agent works for many different clients who have a good understanding of your business, and he/she will find a viable solution with no language barriers. Smooth communication is so important.
c) Sourcing Agents Can Provide Customized Services and Do All the Work for You
The most important thing is that sourcing agents can help you solve potential quality issues in China. The labor costs in the United States are much higher.
Sourcing agents located in the resource area, can analyze the cost of the product and negotiate the contract conditions for you.
d) Sourcing Agents Act as the Staff of Your Representative Office in China
A sourcing agent will help you manage orders so that you have more time to focus on how to sell these products in the target market rather than deal with 20 suppliers at the same time.
You can focus on the sales part and leave the other work to the sourcing agent. You can benefit from long-term cooperation because they care about your business and want to grow with you. If your company is getting better and better, then it means the sourcing agent is also benefiting from it.
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Final Thoughts
The Yiwu Market is the place you need to visit when navigating the Chinese wholesale market. By touring and exploring such an enormous market, you will know how to deal with Chinese merchants and get the best prices and products for your online business. Source Products from Yiwu to Sell on Amazon is a big opportunity
We hope you will have more ideas about the history of the Yiwu market and how to find the best nitch for your best interest after reading this post. Of course, if you need help with anything. OwlSourcing can provide you with a one-stop service from sourcing to shipping.
We will be delighted if you can leave your comments with us!
4 thoughts on “How to Source Products from Yiwu to Sell on Amazon?”
Hi, I want to go into clothing and Brazilian hair. How do I begin? Thanks
Hi Xaviel,
Please send an email to info@localhost then we will check what we can do for you.
cheers
Andy
Thank you.
Andy