芳草苑

1. 婴儿奶粉。
2. 婴儿用品。如Tommee Tippee奶瓶系列。
3. 英国红茶。
4. 威士忌。
5. 化妆品、香水。
6. 巧克力。
7. Clark。

1. 香烟。英国是世界上烟税最高的国家，所以在英国尽量不要抽烟。如果要抽，每人入关时有两条香烟（400支）的免税额度，千万不要浪费。
2. 茶叶。龙井、铁观音、碧螺春、乌龙、普洱，随个人喜好，即使你不喜欢喝茶，你带来的茶叶保准受欢迎。在英国很难买到高等级的茶叶。
3. 丝绸。丝绸礼品很轻巧，几乎不占用行李重量。
4. 贺卡。如果是批量发送的贺卡，到了英国再买也不贵，2镑可以买到50张。值得从中国带来的贺卡是精致型，面向重量级亲友、上司的贺卡，这种贺卡一般也是单张卖的，零售价3-10镑。来英国前应该考虑好用得着这种贺卡的场合，把可以预见到的贺卡一股脑买好带到英国来。

如果你还没有手提电脑，来英国之前想在中国买一台带到英国，我建议你打消念头。四年前，从中国买一台手提电脑再快递到英国，总费用仍比在英国买便宜，但今非昔比，虽然大部分电子产品仍然Made in China，但能列上清单的、中国比英国便宜的消费类电子产品一件件消失。如果想买手机、手提电脑、打印机，还是到英国再买，最近存储卡也英国便宜，真是很让人很难理解中国零售消费者有接近产地的优势，却无法享受优惠的零售价格。On top of my head, only digital cameras and digital videos are relatively cheaper in China.

To me, sourcing Chinese products is a piece of cake.

• I am UK based so I can be close contact with the buyers.
• I have no language barrier because I am from China.
• I have years of experience of talking to manufacturers.
• I know or I can easily find out the production base area of a certain product, so I avoid fruitless approaches from the very beginning.

However, some people may think sourcing products in China is a hi-tech job, especially for those English speakers. One of my partners, before he became my partner, used a weird approach to source Chinese products. He can only speak English, which makes him reluctant to talk/write to Chinese suppliers directly. He is neglecting the fact that China is open to the world now and many Chinese factories and/or import and export companies have staff with good English literature. He is just afraid of the embarrassment of misunderstandings in communication. He employed someone in India as Virtual Assistant to source products in China.

It was a weird approach because the Indian Virtual Assistant was virtually a liaison. It would raise more chances of misunderstandings in communication even the Indian Virtual Assistant is English-Chinese bilingual. What’s more, the Indian Virtual Assistant could not go to China in case the situation requires. I did not see any benefits of employing a Virtual Assistant in Indian.

Well, now I am his partner, and I source products in China, liaison with Chinese factories, and inspect the factories as partnership. I can find many good Chinese suppliers that never appear on Google. (If I was a Chinese suppliers, the first thing I would do was calling for Google awareness. But that is another issue.)

If you are outsourcing sourcing manpower, I would also like to be your Chinese Products Sourcing Manager. Leave a reply for details.