I would like to know some advise for buying furniture directly from overseas?

Happy to provide my opinions.

1.How much do you need to pay for the custom stuff for 20' container in your country?

Not sure what you're asking. You can name your price depending on the quality and complication you will settle for. All Asian furniture bought directly from the Asian factory is paid for before it leaves the factory.

20' container is small. You will have problems with a factory that doesn't think you can do enough business.

2.What kind of after-sales service do you usually get if you buy from your country.

In the U.S. and Canada we expect proper service and resolution to reasonable problems. If necessary we can go to court. Of course in Asia that is not realistic.

3.What is the rate of the tax?

Don't know what the import duties are, however, for bedroom furniture it can be quite high unless you protest and win.

4.Wooden furniture would need to be disinfected, so how much would you need to pay?

The wood needs to be treated first before anything else is done to it. Once the furniture is made its too late to treat the wood. I know of several companies who lost a lot of money because their Asian factory skipped this step to save a few pennies.

5.Besides custom staff, tax, what else do you need to pay for importing furniture? If yes, how much for each items?

You probably need to hire quality control inspectors to regularly monitor the factory. You need to spend money on catalogs and trade shows to promote your products to store buyers. Plan on frequent travel within the US as well to make additional visits to store buyers.

Some furniture will arrive damaged or with missing parts. You will need to maintain a warehouse for replacement parts or your dealers will make deductions from future payments to cover the costs of repairs and missing parts.

6.Would you like to try to buy directly from overseas, why or why not?

No way. Unless you can do a lot of volume, you will eventually lose all your money.

Thanks so much for your kind attention and comments. I take pleasure to lend an attentive ear to your idea or suggestions for the points mentioned above, as I plan to retail furniture to overseas. I would like to see wheather it will work or not. Thanks.

You have many competitors now, and the retail furniture sector is in a major recession. In fact, I would call it a depression. My advice would be to attend the international furniture trade show in Las Vegas in January and see what your competitors are offering.

There are many business opportunities for an Asian entrepreneur in this economy. Furniture is probably the worst. Why would you choose furniture?

Hi, Mogator88, thank you so much for sharing me your opinions. It's so detailed. Well, I really appreciate for that. Actually the words failed to express my meaning as English is not my mother tongue. ^_^

As for the first point, I know the buyers will deal with this part. I just want to know the charge of custom staff when they import something, so that I can work out the basic cost for my clients, as my target clients are from individual (I mean they form a team/group and buy together), not distributors or wholesalers. Few are doing this kind of business here now. And they have door to door service in some countries.

It will help save buyer's money if they buy together in some way, but the problem is they don't have the quality guranttee and after-sales service on the other hand. It's quite difficult to get clients at the starting period, but once it done (when they know your quality and trust you), it will be going well.

The town I'm working at is full of furniture factories. It's more than an industrial zone than a living zone, no better choice for me.

Thanks again. ^_^

Well, good luck to you. But if you're planning to import into the US, I'd look for another plan. Either find another country to import to, or find another product.

The trend in buying (by furniture stores) will move away from price soon, probably in 6 - 18 months. It will toward quality and service. This is the biggest hurdle for Asian and especially Chinese manufacturers. The Chinese opinion of good quality is different than the American opinion of good quality, and the Chinese opinion of good service is different than the American opinion of good service.

At some point after that, the factories that find the right balance of quality, service, and price will have a shot at survival in the US market.

The remaining factories will have to fight for second, third, and fourth tier status. They will have to produce for secondary markets such as Chinese and Asian consumers, and Eastern European consumers. These Chinese factories will also be competing against factories in Viet Nam and other Southeast Asian countries. Many factories will not survive this consolidation and be forced to close.

re tax. just call the customs bureau in DC and ask. tariffs are horribly complicated and you'll be routed to (hopefully as i was re kitchen cabinets) someone whose whole life is figuring out the tarriffs on a particular thing.

You will need to know the HTS classification for each product your importing and customs wont assign numbers for you unless you get it wrong. Then mostly likely your product wont get imported or delayed at your expense.
Just to give another perspective from mogator88 point, their is a small but strong demand in Asia for high quality products from US and EU. Thats what my company is doing making high quality custom furniture for the Asian market. I can easily beat the local manufactures for service and quality.