Working with domestic & Overseas manufacturers/suppliers

[bearman]

I have several questions regarding getting product to market.  Mainly relating to partnering with overseas manufacturers.  I live in the U.S.  If any fellow Yanks that can provide feedback I appreciate hearing your experiences.

1)  Dave you always talk about buying parts from providers (ie; Digikey etc.) for products you are building for yourself and your work.

A thought came to mind about this.  If you are a manufacturer of a product that you are going to sell retail don't you shop for wholesale pricing for materials that you would be selling?  Digikey and such are retailers are they not?

2)  Once you have a total cost (parts, packageing documentation and such) and want to sell your product at a retail outlet how do you determine your retail price to customer and distributor price for vedor selling your product.?   Someone once told me to charge 5 times your cost.   

3)  When ordering product from overseas, mainly China,  do you talk live with anyone or just through emails to discuss your product needs?   I assume companies will have English speaking agents available.    Are they staffed with folks that can communicate efficiently in Engrish?

4)  When ordering buying products from overseas does the U.S. require any taxes or duty to be paid?  Hopefully someone from the U.S. can answer this.

5)  Do overseas providers charge any taxes/duty when shipping to the U.S.?

6)  Any other gotchas to be aware of when buying from overseas providers?  Besides buying stuff that may compromise national security.  LOL


John

[mikeselectricstuff]

I have several questions regarding getting product to market.  Mainly relating to partnering with overseas manufacturers.  I live in the U.S.  If any fellow Yanks that can provide feedback I appreciate hearing your experiences.

1)  Dave you always talk about buying parts from providers (ie; Digikey etc.) for products you are building for yourself and your work.

A thought came to mind about this.  If you are a manufacturer of a product that you are going to sell retail don't you shop for wholesale pricing for materials that you would be selling?  Digikey and such are retailers are they not?

Depends on quantity. For passives they are usually already so cheap it's not worth the hassle shopping around.
More expensive stuff can often be bought cheaper from franchised distributors but they will often only deal in whole reels or other high min order qtys, and may not carry stock so you may have weeks or months of leadtime.

2)  Once you have a total cost (parts, packageing documentation and such) and want to sell your product at a retail outlet how do you determine your retail price to customer and distributor price for vedor selling your product.?   Someone once told me to charge 5 times your cost.   

Not that simple - partly due to what the market will bear, and also your development costs, which are rarely related to parts cost.

4)  When ordering buying products from overseas does the U.S. require any taxes or duty to be paid?  Hopefully someone from the U.S. can answer this.

Above a certain value there are usually import duties.

5)  Do overseas providers charge any taxes/duty when shipping to the U.S.?

No. Duty is always on import, not export. But obviously there will be shipping costs.

[bearman]

Thanks for the quick reply.