German Finds His Dream on eBay

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German Sebastian Bueckle's business is relatively casual compared with many other businessmen in Shenzhen. As a young and trendy guy, the former marketing student likes seeking out the newest and coolest electronic products in the city and selling them on eBay to European customers.

His business partners manufacture the high-tech electronic products, ensuring he can get the best prices from the large stock, and all he has to do is to pack and dispatch them with DHL Express.

To make extra business, he also sells other electronic products manufactured by Chinese companies. "I walk around in Huaqiangbei and look for cool new electronic products which are not yet being sold on eBay. I will buy samples and display them on the site. If a product can sell, I will go back and buy a small stock of about 10 products," Bueckle said.

He came to Shenzhen 15 months ago when he left Hong Kong as he wanted a cheaper place to live. But what he did not realize then was that Shenzhen is actually the place to be for electronic products. "I found out several months later that Huaqiangbei is one of the biggest hubs for trading electronic products in the world. And the best thing for me is that it is possible to buy very small quantities of products at reasonable prices which our competitors in Europe have to buy in bulk," he said.

Bueckle believes that to do business here, you need to have some Chinese people in your team. "Whenever we source or buy products, Chinese people get a much better price than Westerners or people from Hong Kong," he said.

"But the hardest thing for my business is to find customers in Europe or the United States. Once you find customers, there is no difficulty in finding what they want in the city," he said.

Bueckle used to run a small trading company in Shenzhen and looked for European customers through other more formal ways. "But later I found out that was not suitable for me personally. We had to invest a certain amount of money, but I could not make much money," he said.

"However eBay is a very good platform for me, especially as I am in China selling products to other countries. I can save unnecessary expenses and attract more customers,” he said.

Bueckle said Shenzhen was totally different from the other six countries he had previously lived in. Most people in the city are new in town, so it takes foreigners a long time to find out what is going on in the city, both for business and daily life. "For example, I had been to Huaqiangbei many times before I realized it is one of the biggest hubs for trading electronic goods," he said.

Source: Shenzhen Daily

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