I would like more micro detail on finding buyers for imported products.
We currently sell gift and souvenir products to about 300 independent gift
retailers of various descriptions. Finding a line that will sell in enough
volume to justify a container load (or fractional) seems on the surface to
be a daunting task. First, gift retailers are very provincial on a "state"
basis. As soon as you try to sell a product made in another state, sales are
cut in fourths. Your best opportunity is with something they cannot find
in-state (not that hard, fortunately.) Second, every gift retailer wants
something different. If Betty (most of these store owners are women) down
the street carries that line, then "I don't want it." While this creates
opportunities for new, competing lines, it also reduces the opportunity to
get serious volumes of just about anything. (Also please understand we work
in the rural northern Rockies and east of the Cascade mountains (interior
Northwest US) where the BIG city has 30,000 +/- people).
I understand that finding an unmet need, and selling based on "design" is
necessary, we do that all the time. But what kind of minimum volumes would
we need to make importing viable? I can see where we could get samples, go
around and take orders, noting delivery some weeks or months hence. But
seeing that most of these are one-store businesses, most are located in
smaller towns (low to modest volumes), and the fact that its tough to sell a
line to more than one store in a town, and most of the stores will not be
interested in a particular line, what are the options? What is an economic
minimum production quantity, say in your specialty of glassware, John? What
volume of orders would you need before you would work your magic with a
foreign manufacturer? How much work would it be to aggregate different lines
from a foreign country (assuming I could pre-sell a range of products) to
make a container (or fractional) container load?
Distributors are not a dominant force in the gift industry, at least not in
Idaho and eastern Oregon. So finding a volume buyer is like locating a
four-leaf clover. For retail chains, most of the purchasing is
centralized... in Seattle, Portland, Denver, etc and we do not circulate, or
have contacts in those networks. We could develop those of course, but we
would prefer to take advantage of the buying power we already work with. We
travel a lot to make a living in this part of the world, ... more travel is
not our preference.
Not sure if I am making my question clear. Even though we work with hundreds
of buyers (and a database of nearly 2000), the size of buyers we work with
makes "finding a buyer" in economic volumes, a challenge. Suggestions?
Concerns? What strategy would you use for importing, if your biggest asset
was access to a wealth of micro-buyers?
Malcolm
Saturday, August 10, 2002
Detail on Finding Buyers (new thread)
Friday, August 9, 2002
Export Lewis Clark Memorabilia
Re: [spiers] Export Lewis Clark Memorabilia
Well...here are my concerns...
In a message dated 8/9/02 8:35:41 PM, malcolmd@moscow.com writes:
<< Thanks for the feedback, John, see below!
----- Original Message -----
> In a message dated 8/8/02 6:24:52 PM, malcolmd@moscow.com writes:
>
> << As the only rep firm in the US, to my knowledge,
> specializing in LC products, we are in a unique position to aggregate
> multiple lines of LC products for container shipments to (mostly) Europe.
>
> ***Who are the customers in europe who have said they want to buy Lewis
andc
> Clark souvenir items?***
NO IDEA UNTIL WE MEET WITH THE STATE.
(((I am not sure there is anyone working for any govt agency that can have
any useful information regarding who actually buys and sells. Let me know if
you find out differently...)))
> We
> will be meeting with the Commerce folks late this month, or early
September,
> and wanted to hear any feedback you may have on what questions to ask, or
> how to approach this sort of opportunity. Also, how can we best market
Lewis
> Clark products to importers in other countries to complement what the
> Commerce Department is getting.
>
> ***As a unique event, it is going to be tough I would think to find
> customers... who has bought such things in the past.***
>
GOOD POINT. MAYBE ONCE WE LEARN WHO THE CUSTOMERS ARE MAKING REQUESTS, WE
CAN PROJECT FROM THERE...
(((If the source is "trade leads" I think you'll find the buyers never have
any customers and the sellers never have any product. I can't imagine any
leads you get will pay off with any usefulo biz...again, correct me if I am
wrong.)))
> What kind of product category would this
> fall under with the NTDB? Souvenirs? Gifts? >>
>
> ***well, each item...a mug, a hat, a plate, a spoon will have its own hts
> number.***
>
HMMMM, THIS WILL TAKE SOME SIGNIFICANT INVESTIGATIVE WORK AS WELL.
> John >>
(((Yes... now, there are at least a half dozern companies in Seattle alone
that make souvenirs for events..and can quickly put Lewis and Clark motrif on
500 sku's of products. How do you know there will not be say 2 dozen
competitors just as things heat up?)))
John
Export Lewis Clark Memorabilia
Re: [spiers] Export Lewis Clark Memorabilia
Thanks for the feedback, John, see below!
----- Original Message -----
> In a message dated 8/8/02 6:24:52 PM, malcolmd@moscow.com writes:
>
> << As the only rep firm in the US, to my knowledge,
> specializing in LC products, we are in a unique position to aggregate
> multiple lines of LC products for container shipments to (mostly) Europe.
>
> ***Who are the customers in europe who have said they want to buy Lewis
andc
> Clark souvenir items?***
NO IDEA UNTIL WE MEET WITH THE STATE.
> We
> will be meeting with the Commerce folks late this month, or early
September,
> and wanted to hear any feedback you may have on what questions to ask, or
> how to approach this sort of opportunity. Also, how can we best market
Lewis
> Clark products to importers in other countries to complement what the
> Commerce Department is getting.
>
> ***As a unique event, it is going to be tough I would think to find
> customers... who has bought such things in the past.***
>
GOOD POINT. MAYBE ONCE WE LEARN WHO THE CUSTOMERS ARE MAKING REQUESTS, WE
CAN PROJECT FROM THERE...
> What kind of product category would this
> fall under with the NTDB? Souvenirs? Gifts? >>
>
> ***well, each item...a mug, a hat, a plate, a spoon will have its own hts
> number.***
>
HMMMM, THIS WILL TAKE SOME SIGNIFICANT INVESTIGATIVE WORK AS WELL.
> John
Export Lewis Clark Memorabilia
RE: [spiers] Export Lewis Clark Memorabilia
Who, in the Commerce Dept., do you talk to? Name, title, etc.?
-----Original Message-----
From: wileyccc@aol.com [mailto:wileyccc@aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 08, 2002 8:28 PM
To: spiers@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [spiers] Export Lewis Clark Memorabilia
In a message dated 8/8/02 6:24:52 PM, malcolmd@moscow.com writes:
<< As the only rep firm in the US, to my knowledge,
specializing in LC products, we are in a unique position to aggregate
multiple lines of LC products for container shipments to (mostly) Europe.
***Who are the customers in europe who have said they want to buy Lewis andc
Clark souvenir items?***
We
will be meeting with the Commerce folks late this month, or early September,
and wanted to hear any feedback you may have on what questions to ask, or
how to approach this sort of opportunity. Also, how can we best market Lewis
Clark products to importers in other countries to complement what the
Commerce Department is getting.
***As a unique event, it is going to be tough I would think to find
customers... who has bought such things in the past.***
What kind of product category would this
fall under with the NTDB? Souvenirs? Gifts? >>
***well, each item...a mug, a hat, a plate, a spoon will have its own hts
number.***
John
Thursday, August 8, 2002
Export Lewis Clark Memorabilia
Re: [spiers] Export Lewis Clark Memorabilia
In a message dated 8/8/02 6:24:52 PM, malcolmd@moscow.com writes:
<< As the only rep firm in the US, to my knowledge,
specializing in LC products, we are in a unique position to aggregate
multiple lines of LC products for container shipments to (mostly) Europe.
***Who are the customers in europe who have said they want to buy Lewis andc
Clark souvenir items?***
We
will be meeting with the Commerce folks late this month, or early September,
and wanted to hear any feedback you may have on what questions to ask, or
how to approach this sort of opportunity. Also, how can we best market Lewis
Clark products to importers in other countries to complement what the
Commerce Department is getting.
***As a unique event, it is going to be tough I would think to find
customers... who has bought such things in the past.***
What kind of product category would this
fall under with the NTDB? Souvenirs? Gifts? >>
***well, each item...a mug, a hat, a plate, a spoon will have its own hts
number.***
John
Export Lewis Clark Memorabilia
Greetings to the gang!
My wife and I have an interesting situation developing, with an opportunity
to export products from the US related to the upcoming BiCentennial
celebration of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, and want some feedback/ideas.
We operate a manufacturers' representative business selling gifts,
souvenirs, and gourmet specialty foods to independent retail stores,
museums, resort gifts shops, etc in five states, but mostly Idaho, eastern
Oregon, eastern Washington, and western Montana. (As independent
manufacturers' representatives, we work on commission, selling multiple
non-competing lines of merchandise to retail stores, and receive a
commission monthly, after the retailers/stores have paid their account with
the manufacturer or distributor.)
We have been in business just over 1- 1/2 years, and are growing rapidly.
Our specialty is Lewis & Clark/Sacagawea motif products, which are being
produced in droves due to the upcoming Bicentennial commemoration. You may
have seen the recent article in Time magazine or the PBS series about the
event. Two to 20 million visitors are expected along the Trail, starting
with the big national kick-off in Monticello this coming January. The 200
year anniversary will extend through the fall of 2006. (There is already a
significant increase in visitor traffic from St. Louis to the Pacific Coast,
related to LC history and activities.)
We are an Idaho-based company, and work closely with the Idaho Department of
Commerce. During a recent communication they said they are getting requests
for Lewis & Clark products from foreign countries, and I think they
mentioned Germany and Italy in the discussion. (Of course, France and Spain
were among the owners of the western US, only days before the official
Expedition began.) As the only rep firm in the US, to my knowledge,
specializing in LC products, we are in a unique position to aggregate
multiple lines of LC products for container shipments to (mostly) Europe. We
will be meeting with the Commerce folks late this month, or early September,
and wanted to hear any feedback you may have on what questions to ask, or
how to approach this sort of opportunity. Also, how can we best market Lewis
Clark products to importers in other countries to complement what the
Commerce Department is getting. What kind of product category would this
fall under with the NTDB? Souvenirs? Gifts?
Any thoughts or feedback appreciated. It's been a long time since I took
John's class, and my memory is a bit rusty, but looking forward to dusting
off the old notes, reading his book, and getting back into it.
Malcolm (& Sandy) Dell
Lewis Clark Gifts & Souvenirs
"Wholesale Sales Representatives"
PO Box 709
Orofino, ID 83544
(208) 476-3858
(208) 476-7238 FAX
LewisClark@idaho.net
storage for beer
RE: [spiers] storage for beer
What type of storage does beer require? There are many warehouses available
in Seattle, however the type of security needed would be something to think
about. Once anyone found out that there was beer stored there...kids will do
anything to get it, even the older kids of 40.
-----Original Message-----
From: valkaras42 [mailto:cabin@seanet.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 08, 2002 3:40 PM
To: spiers@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [spiers] storage for beer
Hello John,
Could you please give me some tips how to find a good warehouse for
beer storage in the Seattle area?
Thanks,
Valerie
storage for beer
Hello John,
Could you please give me some tips how to find a good warehouse for
beer storage in the Seattle area?
Thanks,
Valerie