If you want to sell your product in a country, you mostly need a wholesaler that can also act as your importer.
It strongly depends on your expectations of such an importer how easy you can find him.
If you just want to outsource the formalities and some logistics, you will easily find a party. If you look for an importer that will also find retailers or direct customers for your product, this may be more difficult.
If you want to have your product in retail or B2B sales channels, you may have to find an importer or wholesaler first. They will do important steps like:
It is always a good start to orient yourself on the bigger players in the market. However, for your product and positioning other channels may be better. So it is wise to orient yourself first on structure of the market and your options. Also check what your competition does!
Thailand has around 67 million inhabitants, of which 10 million live in the Bangkok region. The consuming class, those who have more to spend than just for the basic necessities, will grow from 30 million to 36 million in the next four years. The market for consumer goods and processed food products will grow with over 10% annually. The current political situation has only added to the economic stability and growth of the country.
Bangkok is the place to start, all major organisations have their headquarters there. For services and industrial products this can be a good place to start with quite some coverage. Chiang Mai is the economic centre for the North and can be a good extension.
Finding an agent or distributor requires good knowledge of the Thai language and a good understanding of the culture. Without this it will be difficult to get access to the market.
The best preparation for doing business in any country is visiting it. This way you can experience the culture, check the shops and build your network.
With Trip.com you can compare flights and also book your hotel.
Hotellook compares different hotel sites so you always have the best rate.
Localrent connects you to national rental car providers per country.
If you have a consumer product that you can’t sell directly from your home country to your end customer, you need at least one step in between. This can be a distributor, a big retailer directly, or it can be a large web shop. Each of them can function as an importer of record too. Let’s look at the pro’s and con’s of each option.
I always put a lot of emphasis on drafting a good distributor pitch. Even if you already have great sales materials for your end-users, this often does not make clear what the benefits are for a potential agent, distributor or retailer to work with you.
When you approach potential sales channels with your standard documentation, chances are high that they are holding of. If you make it crystal clear what are the benefits for them, like in the example presentation, you will get a much higher response rate.
Please note that it helps to put concrete data in your presentation. You may think it is sensitive, but just know the secret is in how you achieve the rotation or the low returns level, not in the data itself. So share it here, in order to get the right attention.
