The world is full of people who want big export sales naturally enough. And there are the college graduates who are armed with the specialized awareness of "economies of scale" and try to build market off of 40 foot container loads. They meet the exporters trying to sell them. All very good, except for the astonishing effort involved in trying to research markets for 40' containers full of goods, which 99 times out of 100 result in no sale. What a waste of time and effort. They both miss an extremely important process in building international trade markets.
USCensus research of export companies confirm what we in the trenches already know. There is a search and learn process to marketing that involves many small shipments, which occasionally lead to ongoing, growing business.
The search and learn is a series of shipments as the buyer overseas tests out the exporter's products, dealing over the course of various shipments with all of the problems of importing in international trade. There is the payment mechanism, there is the logistics, there is customs clearance, there is internal logistics and warehouse, there is selling and market feedback.
An importer may need several small shipments in order to work out all of the problems. Of the 100 potential customers in a given country for an exporter, 20 may want to test a new item, and perhaps two can find a steady business. The trick is not to have a website that gets you 1000 inquiries to manage, but to go straight to the potential buyers and work with them.
A webpage should be designed from the importer/buyers point of view ... what do they want? They want small shipments to test out the processes. Buyers are constantly looking for new, for what is next, and need to be constantly testing new things in their markets.
I call this unique webpage the FOB MOQ offer page. There is actually a lot of information on this one page, all of the information a buyer needs to place an order immediately. It tells a buyer who would like to test your product in his market all of the information he needs to buy. This is considerable
MOQ qty
weights
measures
HS & commodity description
EXW price and currency
Crating
labeling
govt documentation fees
transport to port
lift fee
freigth forwarders fees
Misc
FOB price
And then you provide the payment mechanism you require. Serious buyers who wish to test your product in their market will have all of the information they need. And if they have questions, you will have a navigation bar floating along as they read. It has the means to contact the seller immediately. Your website will too, so a serious buyer with a serious question can at any time send it in. In this way you are learning from actual customers their concerns in real time.
Won’t all that information scare some people away? Yes! People who would have just wasted your time before, people who are not ready, willing and able to buy.
Yes, small shipments do not maximize economies of scale. But the point of the test order for the buyer is the test, not the economies of scale. The buyer knows if the item tests well, he can have economies of scale later. Right now the buyer wants to run risks on a $2000 order, not a $40,000 order. He can afford a $2000 mistake, not a $40,000 mistake. There are far more people willing to test at $2000 than at $40,000. Email me for a white paper on ocean freight and test shipments.
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
USCensus research of export companies confirm what we in the trenches already know. There is a search and learn process to marketing that involves many small shipments, which occasionally lead to ongoing, growing business.
The search and learn is a series of shipments as the buyer overseas tests out the exporter's products, dealing over the course of various shipments with all of the problems of importing in international trade. There is the payment mechanism, there is the logistics, there is customs clearance, there is internal logistics and warehouse, there is selling and market feedback.
An importer may need several small shipments in order to work out all of the problems. Of the 100 potential customers in a given country for an exporter, 20 may want to test a new item, and perhaps two can find a steady business. The trick is not to have a website that gets you 1000 inquiries to manage, but to go straight to the potential buyers and work with them.
A webpage should be designed from the importer/buyers point of view ... what do they want? They want small shipments to test out the processes. Buyers are constantly looking for new, for what is next, and need to be constantly testing new things in their markets.
I call this unique webpage the FOB MOQ offer page. There is actually a lot of information on this one page, all of the information a buyer needs to place an order immediately. It tells a buyer who would like to test your product in his market all of the information he needs to buy. This is considerable
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
2 comments:
Is there an actual example of a small-business having a FOB MOQ offer webpage?
Yes, thousands of actual examples.
Here is one...
http://www.hktdc.com/sourcing/company_small_order_zone.htm?companyid=1X070OLF&locale=en
Here is a report...
http://small-order.hktdc.com/?DCSext.dept=2&WT.mc_id=1733128
and of course costco has always done it, at costco.com
and Starbucks has a version that sells a franchise...
Here is another...
http://ywhangfei.en.alibaba.com/
Note how poorly they are executed. That is the part yet to get right, then integrate with active marketing and trade show booth management. I am working on a lesson of how to get it all exactly right.
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