I know the overseas suppliers are more interested in the US market because of its size. Do the overseas suppliers see Canada as a separate part of the US market? A product may sell well in Canada and then transfer over into US. If this is the case they would be eager to work with Canadian importers.I have not been to US yet. Since you travel allot you probably know the differences in culture between Canadians and Americans.Joseph
Joseph,
Thank you for your kind email. Although USA and Canadians can tell the difference between each other, beyond North America there is no telling.
Canada is a rich country, and as for suppliers, that is enough. Suppliers can make money with Canada. If you are in Canada, forget about the USA market, you do not need it to start. There is certainly enough business in Canada to launch any business. In fact, in the entertainment field, there are very many Canadians who became popular in Canada long before they came to USA. Just as a company may start in San Francisco and grow to cover all of USA, so can company start in Calgary, grow to cover all of Canada, and then start selling South.
It is enough now to get started, your suppliers will take into account your market is Canada, never mention USA at first (You talk big, they will talk big), just focus on what customers you can reach, and how to serve them. Your suppliers will happily help you do just that.
Let me know how things proceed.
1 comments:
I'm an importer in Canada. John's advice is excellent. Canada is a small country but extremely wealthy ... the market is large enough that as a single importer you'll likely never be able to saturate the market with any particular product alone. But even if that was the case, you'd probably be on to new products by the time you even got close to tapping the entire Canadian market.
I have found some exporters see Canada as a rich country like the US without thinking about the vast difference in size. When negotiating minimum orders, I always point out that the Canadian market is only 1/10th the size of the US market ... then I see if they will half their MOQ. Works sometimes, sometimes not... depending on their operation. But it always leads the exporters / manufacturers to be more flexible once they understand the difference.
As a Canadian, I'm always looking to the US for product ideas. As consumers Americans are more adventurous than Canadians so the new products always pop up in the US. But it can take a year or two for the products to make their way into the Canadian market.
In the meantime there are amazing opportunities to start marketing these products in Canada. Because the products are being tried, tested and perfected for the US market, a lot of the work is being done for you by American importers.
And US import records are public domain so it is very easy to find out who the overseas manufacturer is for a given company's product. Sometimes companies use shell companies or holding companies to do the importing so it is harder to gather intelligence about where their suppliers are located but in general most companies are not so clever. =)
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