How to import from overseas - customs etc.

Re: [spiers] How to import from overseas - customs etc.

Hi John,

> <> I making them
> locally and not at the best place in the world but because the digital
> camera model changes every 9 months we have to have hands on control,
> as these adapters require thousands of a millimeter specifications.
>
> ***Whoa... who am I to argue with your customers? If your customers are
> buying from you they must think you are the best place in teh world. My on;ly
> reaction would be "can you export, since people seem to think you are the best
> place?"***

We do get requests from people to become distributors in other countries,
Germany, Japan, England fairly often but right now it costs us between
$10.95 and $13.00 to make one adapter........which we retail for $27.95 for
a single adapter or $23.50 if you buy a pair, and so offering them at a
wholesale price would mean a lot more work for not much return. We might
make $5.00 a piece................ so we would have to work on volume. But
you have got me thinking.............. :) Maybe I am not thinking big
enough.

See we have a very simple situation, in that it is just myself, my partner,
and a person who ships for us. No advertising costs, we are talked about on
the 2 largest forums on the web for digital cameras so it is by word of
mouth. We then ship all over the world.

I am not sure if wholesaling would be more work than it is worth. I did
have a fellow from Germany who wanted to be the sole distributor for his
country......and he explained that it wouldn't take business away from our
web-site as most people in Germany don't use credit cards just wire
transfers. So that would be my concern, that I would be losing
international customers to my international distributors.............also
how would I have control over how the product is represented. This guy
actually posted a mock "LensMate" (our DBA) site up on a German forum, in
German this past year to test market if he could sell our
adapters.......without asking us. He was very nice though and did take it
down once we asked him to.

In the past several years 3 of the largest camera accessory companies, have
come up with their own copies of our machined adapter at a lower quality,
and lower prices.........so we are just able to keep ahead of the swell by
out designing the latest model of camera with an adapter that say, color
matches the camera body, fits the aesthetics of camera better than the
generic adapter, etc. and of course we can get a product designed,
prototyped, and ready to sell in 4 weeks.........the big companies take more
like 3-6 months. Then we find the appropriate filters to make it easy for
someone to shop in one place.

Thank you for your suggestions on how to approach buying from overseas
distributors, I will follow through with your advice and let you know how it
goes.

best regards Susan

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