How to Import LED Lights From China?
In recent years, China has became the largest LED lights manufacturer base worldwide. If you consider to purchase LED lights, you cannot ignore Chinese LED lights suppliers. There are 8 tips can help you to learn how to import LED lights from China.
1. Decide which type of supplier you want
You need to confirm the type of supplier you are looking for if you plan to import LED lights from China. There are roughly two types of suppliers.
The first category is a trading company. Trading company does not produce products, but will lots of information about various lighting factories. If you want to buy many types of lighting products, but if your own supply chain management capabilities are limited, then you can find a qualified lighting trading company to help.
However, there are 2 disadvantages: 1. The price of foreign trade is generally higher than that of your direct purchase from the factory. 2.Usually, trading companies may not have less expertise in product knowledge than factory.
The second category is a LED lights manufacturer. Customers purchase products from the factory with more decent price than trading companies. Also, factory will supply professional technical support at the same time.
However, usually, every professional lights manufacturer’s product range is generally not particularly wide. For example, a qualified LED bulb factory probably do not have an advantage on producing LED track light, because they are totally different. So if you want to purchase other LED lights, you may find several lights factories to meet your requirement.
2. Find suppliers by Internet and attenting fairs
First, Use google or any trusted searching engine. You need to type the right key words. For example, if you want to looking for a Chinese LED lights supplier, you can use “LED lights manufacturer in China”, “China LED lights factory” or some words like that.
Then, you had better to check the suppliers list and access to their websites. From their website, you can know their products, service and scale, etc. If all of them meet your requirement, you also need to contact with them for further information to double confirm.
Second, attend to relative professional lighting exhibitions. I will list several of the most influential lighting fairs worldwide. Due to the epidemic for recent 2 years, the exhibition has been greatly affected. Therefore, many exhibition organizers have launched online exhibitions, which can display products and communicate through online, which can also achieve good results.
| Exhibition | Place | Time | General introduction | Website |
| Light + Building | Frankfurt am Main, Germany. | 2022.3.13-2022.3.18 (once every 2 years) | Light + Building is again the number-one international industry event. Innovative technologies open up new perspectives for buildings. This makes Light + Building the industry meeting place for current lighting trends, intelligent building technology and security across all disciplines. | https://light-building.messefrankfurt.com/frankfurt/en/profile.html |
| HONG KONG international lighting fair | 1 Expo Drive, Wanchai, Hong Kong | 27-30 2021 October (Physical Fair) 27 October – 6 2021 November (Online Fair) (Spring and Autumn Edition every year) | The Hong Kong International Autumn Lighting Fair is hosted by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC). Since it was held in 1999, it has been successfully held for 18 sessions. The 18th fair will be held in 2016. The huge number of buyers and exhibitors, as well as the continuous record high transaction volume, have made the exhibition a prominent position in the industry. | https://www.hktdc.com/ |
| Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition | China Import and Export Fair Complex, No. 380 Yuejiang Zhong Road, Haizhu District, Guangzhou, China. | 9-12 June, 2021 (once every year) | Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition (GILE) concluded its 26th edition from 3 – 6 Aug at the China Import and Export Complex in Guangzhou. The fair welcomed 2,036 exhibitors and 97,688 visitors. Running with the theme ‘The Future is Now’, GILE 2021 promoted optimism for the lighting industry, seeking to share the latest developments and technological breakthroughs. | https://guangzhou-international-lighting-exhibition.hk.messefrankfurt.com/guangzhou/en.html |
| LIGHTFAIR INTERNATIONAL (LFI) | Jacob Javits Convention Center, New York (touring in Las Vegas, New York, San Diego, Chicago, Philadelphia and other places) | 21-23 May 2021 (once every year) | LIGHTFAIR INTERNATIONAL is hosted by the North American Lighting Engineering Association and the International Lighting Design Association. It has been successfully held for 29 sessions so far. It is currently the largest international lighting exhibition in the United States with the most concentrated visitors and the most influential in the world. | https://www.lightfair.com/ |
| International Fair of Lighting Equipment LIGHT | Warsaw Centre EXPO XXI, Poland | 26-28 January, 2022 (Once every year) | International Fair of Lighting Equipment LIGHT is a large-scale professional lighting exhibition in Poland and one of the influential professional lighting exhibitions in Eastern Europe. The 2019 Lighting Fair attracted more than 450 exhibitors from different places. | https://lightfair.pl/language/en/ |
| LUX LIVE LONDON | ExCeL London | November, 2021 (Once every year) | LUX LIVE LONDON is the leading professional event for the lighting and atmosphere lighting industry in the European region. The British Lighting Fair is an exhibition that allows you to have the opportunity to communicate directly with many professionals, important industry buyers and influential visitors. | https://www.excel.london/m/visitor/whats-on/luxlive |
3. Audit the suppliers’ factories
To audit suppliers’ factories is an effective way to evaluate a factory. From an auditing, you can know real scale of a company, accomplishment of employees, ability of OEM/ODM, capacity of production and execution of QC, etc. Those all help you to judge the suppliers can meet your requirement or not.
More, It is a great way to meet and communicate with suppliers managers in person, because probably it helps to mutual trust for both of you. But currently, it is not very easy to fly internationally, so to entrust an professional audit company is a flexible way for you.
4.Request of the inquiry
Customers need make sure what you want to purchase or you can ask suppliers to give some recommendation. Before inquiry, customers need to clear about several points which are relative to finial prices, include certificate of products, life warranty and LED chips and LED drivers, packing, and delivery term, etc. After that, suppliers can make an accurate quotation for you.
5. Place an order
You need to be careful about releasing an order becasue it means you need to pay for the goods. If you don’t importe LED lights from China or purchased LED lights from the supplier before, the recommended solutions are place an sample order or a small order to decrease risks. During the process of the very first orders, you will get more information how good the suppliers cooperate with your side. If you feel satisfied, you can keep purchasing from them. If you feel disappointed, the method decreases the lost into the minimum level.
6. Inspect orders before shipment.
Once your orders are done, you have rights to inspect the goods to make sure they are qualified. You can pay a professional agent for inspection. You confirm inspection details with the agents, then they will contact with your suppliers and arrange inspection as your requirement. Also, you can ask the suppliers to offer relative information, includes photos of products, photos of packing, integrating sphere test report and luminous intensity distribution test report, etc.
7. Choose your shipping methods
Once the payment are done, you can ask supplier arrange shipment for you.
Choose a right way to deliver your goods is a important step of import LED lights from China. Generally, there are 3 main international shipping methods: sea transportation, air transportation, train transportation. The following delivery cost is from low to high:
- Sea transportation is the most common way to delivery, which occupied over 2/3 of total international transportation amount. Sea transportation has a huge advantage on cost to compare with other 2 transportation ways. However, sea transportation cost longer time and it is affected by weather.
- Train transportation’s advantage are Large transportation volume, high speed, low cost, generally not restricted by climatic conditions, suitable for long-distance transportation of bulky and heavy goods.
- Air transportation is most efficient but expensive way to deliver. It is a mode of transportation that uses airplanes, helicopters and other aircraft to transport people, goods, and mail. It is fast and mobile. It is an important method of modern passenger transportation, especially long-distance passenger transportation, and is indispensable for the transportation of valuables, fresh goods and precision instruments in international trade.
8. Summery of Import LED lights from China
It is always good to be careful to find new Lighting suppliers. We mentioned 7 aspects to help you import LED lighting from China. In my point of view, the most import thing here is to find reliable and qualified LED lighting supplier, which means 50% chance to be successful. Here, allow me to introduce DGT lighting Co.,ltd.
DGT LIHGTING CO.,LTD has about 30 years experience for OEM/ODM lighting products, include LED downlight, LED spotlight, LED linear light, LED track light, LED MR16 lamps and MR16 fittings, etc. During the 30 years, depending on our profession and integrity, we build long-term business relationship with customers worldwide. We sincerely hope we can to be your partner of LED lighting manufacturer.
