Landed Cost: How I Calculate If an Alibaba Product Is Worth Importing
Before I ordered my first product from Alibaba, I made a classic beginner mistake. I saw a unit price of $1.70 and immediately started calculating profit in my head. I was already thinking about how many units I could sell.
That number meant almost nothing.
Here is how I actually think about it now, using my charger order as a real example.
Start with the landed cost, not the unit price
The landed cost is what you actually pay per unit by the time the product is in your hands. It includes everything: product cost, shipping, duties, and taxes.
With my chargers, the math looked like this.
I ordered 50 units at $1.70 each, which is $85. With bank fees and Alibaba fees on top (about $19), the total product cost came to around $104. Then came shipping, which was $65. On top of that, VAT added another $15. So total shipping costs were $80.
$104 + $80 = $184 for 50 units.
$184 divided by 50 is $3.68. So each charger really cost me around 4 dollars, not $1.70.
Before you place any order, do this calculation. MOQ multiplied by unit price, plus a realistic shipping estimate, plus roughly 20-25% for taxes and duties depending on your country. Divide by the number of units. That number is your baseline.
Then check what the market is actually paying
Once you know your landed cost, look at what the same or similar product sells for. Not the retail price in a supermarket. The price someone is actually paying on eBay, Amazon, Vinted, or wherever you plan to sell.
When I checked, chargers like mine were going for between $19 and $25 in stores. On resale platforms, people were moving them for around $12 to $15.
I set my price at $13 per unit.
The margin calculation
Selling price minus landed cost gives you gross margin per unit.
$13 minus my real cost of around $4 leaves roughly $9 per charger. That sounds fine until you factor in your time to list, package, and ship each unit. For 50 units it was manageable. For 500, you need to think harder about whether that margin justifies the work.
A rough rule I use: if the selling price is not at least double the landed cost, the product is risky. Markets shift, competition appears, and you need room to discount without losing money.
With the chargers I was just above that threshold. Not a great product, but not a disaster either.
A second example: my hinges and handles
The chargers were my first order. Here's a more recent one, with the same way of thinking.
In September 2026, I bought 200 hinges and 150 handles from Wenzhou Oukali Hardware on Alibaba. This time I used my own shipping agent and sea shipping with DDP, so taxes and duties were already part of the shipping price.
Here's what went into the landed cost:
| Cost | Amount |
|---|---|
| Goods (EXW price) | 216 USD |
| Express delivery to my agent's warehouse in China | 5 USD (4.41 €) |
| Sea shipping, DDP: 2.73 €/kg × 32 kg | 87.36 € |
| Remote-area fee | 14.77 € |
| Agent commission (a fixed fee) | 24 € |
The goods were priced in dollars and the shipping in euros, so I convert everything to one currency. Using the same rate as that 5 USD payment (4.41 €), the 216 USD of goods comes to roughly 190 €.
So the full landed cost was roughly:
190 € + 4.41 € + 126.13 € = about 321 € for 350 pieces.
That's an average of a little over 0.90 € per piece. Hinges and handles don't cost the same, so in practice I'd split it per product. But the average already tells me something important.
The goods cost about 190 €. Getting them from the factory to my door cost about 130 €. That's close to 70 percent on top of the goods, even with cheap sea shipping.
The steps I follow before I order
If you want a simple checklist, this is how I'd do it:
- Start with the goods. Unit price × quantity, at your real order quantity, not the lowest price in the range.
- Add delivery inside China. If your agent receives the goods, ask the supplier what delivery to the agent's warehouse costs.
- Add international shipping. Ask for a quote per kg and estimate the weight. Air and sea are very different: my chargers went by air at about 7–8 €/kg, and my hardware went by sea at 2.73 €/kg.
- Add taxes and duties. With DDP they're included in the shipping price. Without DDP, add them yourself.
- Add every extra fee. Remote-area fees, commissions, anything else on the quote.
- Convert everything to one currency and divide by the number of units.
That number is your landed cost. Only then compare it with what the market is paying.
Where most people go wrong
The product price on Alibaba is almost always the most attractive number on the page. Shipping, especially for small orders, can easily add 50 to 80 percent on top of what you paid for the goods. I had no idea until I received the shipping quote.
That is why I now calculate shipping before I even decide if a product interests me. If the product is heavy, bulky, or low in value relative to its weight, the numbers often stop working before you even start.
The charger order taught me more than any article could have. I made money, but not as much as I thought I would when I first saw that $1.70 figure. Next time I will know where to look first.
Related: How I Import from China as a Private Individual (Step by Step)