Profit

[nomilila]

How can Chinese companies make money on some items? I buy some earrings from China for about $1.50 - $2. They are pretty nice as well. It has free shipping as well. How do they manage to make a profit if they have to ship it to me from China?

[myescape]

Chinese shipping is subsidized by the goverment and volume,even  if they only make a little from each item but sell loads of them they do well

[dtexley3]

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@nomilila wrote:

How can Chinese companies make money on some items? I buy some earrings from China for about $1.50 - $2. They are pretty nice as well. It has free shipping as well. How do they manage to make a profit if they have to ship it to me from China?

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Stop and think hard about how "nice" something that can be made and shipped from overseas for $1.50 really can be.  I mean really stop and think about it.

Asian sellers get free shipping to the US and then pay around $0.87 per pound to ship their items.  So if each item is 1oz in a package they can ship 16 for that $0.87.

[castlemagicmemories]

 You say they are pretty nice and have free shipping, but it seems that you have not yet received them.  You might find a different story when you actually do receive them.  

[dirk12955]

I had to search for it. According to Google the minimum wage in Shanghai is $317.00 per month and that is the highest of any area of China.

A $2.00 widget is probably pretty profitable if you're earning $1.50 per hour to make them.

And, China workers have seen a huge increase in their standard of living since 2010