Selling your Product or Services to China

What will a piece of the Chinese market do for your business?

Selling your product or service to the biggest consumer market on earth sounds like a great idea.
But unless you know what to do, and how to do it, you could be following a short-cut to disaster.

Exporting your product to a distributor in China
Selling to a Chinese importer sounds like it should be easy.
But so often this 'importer' is an high-hoping opportunist who'll just add your product to his website and list it on Alibaba.com. This isn't just ineffective, it can be a complete waste of time (and probably just puts your product are greater risk of being copied by pirates).

We can do the groundwork specific to your product to identify, qualify and pitch your product to the best-positioned representative distributors in China with good market share in your area of products.
Not only do we act as a business dating agency for you, but we continue to chaperone you in all your business negotiations and dealings to make sure that your business interests are properly represented and that your products receive the market exposure that they deserve.

Even once you've established a working relationship with a Chinese buyer there will be many day-to-day issues to be resolved and overseen. We do this for you so that you avoid the common [silly] problems, and we'll help make everything go like clockwork for you.
We train our staff to become experts on your product so that most of the common problems can be resolved for you without your direct involvement.

Establishing your business in China
China is such a huge consumer market, it's very important that your business is properly represented.
If your business isn't ready to make the financial commitment to a Chinese business venture, DUH offer you a very simple low-risk solution:

We'll establish an office in China on your behalf

• We'll recruit and train dedicated Chinese staff, and provide them with suitable office space and equipment.
• This is your office in China - like a natural extension of your business operations.
• Your Chinese staff will be trained as experts in your business and products, answering phonecalls and dealing with day-to-day correspondence and red-tape, and keeping accurate records of everything.
• Everything is conducted with complete transparency, and you can keep in touch easily by phone, Skype, email.
• And of course your Chinese office is under the constant supervision of highly experienced DUH partners, so you've very little to involve yourself in directly.

What's the cost of your own DUH managed Chinese office?
We'll agree this with you before we get in too deep. We prefer to agree a fixed percentage of sales achieved because this gives you a simple regular value to calculate with no hidden surprises.

There are other options, depending on your size and level of commitment: WFOE (woofie) Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise is a limited liability company owned by non-Chinese investors. You'll need to put up a given amount of capital depending on where you locate your offices and what you're business does - anything from 100,000RMB to 1-millionRMB Advantages of a WFOE: Freedom to operate without a Chinese partner. Better IP protection of your design and technology Control of who you employ Disadvantages of a WFOE: Because you've no Chinese partner you lack Guan Xi [business contacts and reputation] which can be a fast-track to authorisation and resources. It can take longer to recruit good employees and build a sales team. Difficult to get the best deals. Difficult to get government support . Joint Venture A joint venture with a Chinese partner. Advantages of a Joint Venture: More cost-effective start-up compared to WFOE. Easier to obtain capital, get access to Chinese technology and win government support. Generally a faster way to gain market entry. Disadvantages of Joint Venture: Negotiations for cooperation can take forever to get an agreement. Cultural differences between partners can be a major cause of disagreement. Neither partner has control of decision-making process. There are two types of Joint Venture: Equity Joint Venture is more common, and shares the risk proportionate to the share of business ownership. The foreign partner [you] will have to put up at least 25% of the registered capital. Contractual Joint Venture allows both parties to operate as separate legal entities. There's no minimum foreign contribution, and the contributions can be made in the form of labour, resources or services. Profits are divided according to terms of contract.

Know your market
This is China.
And unless you're very familiar with Chinese customs, Chinese culture, Chinese tastes, Chinese language, ..... the chances are that you will crash and burn, like so many others before you.

• The first thing we do is gather as a team to consider your product and discuss its potential.
• We're looking for innovative, desirable, high-quality, relevant products and services that have a realistic potential in the Chinese market.
• We're not interested in your business just because you've got a ton of money to throw at it.
• We're interested in maintaining a 100% success rate for our clients' market entry with products that deserve it.

So when we consider your product we're also looking at you and your business:

• Are you truly enthusiastic and ambitious for success?
• Is your business capable of adapting to handle Chinese business?
• Is your business capable of meeting Chinese consumer demand?
• How much help will your business require to make your market entry successful?

Market Research
We can perform your market research to discover what kind of similar products are selling in China, and which brands enjoy what market share; their growth rate and market trends.
We can perform a distribution survey to find out the main approaches for the introduction of similar products in the market.
We'll consider appropriate innovative options for promotion and market recognition.
We'll research the competition to compare unique selling points and competitive advantages.
We can conduct consumer tests to get feedback to package and product design options.
We'll investigate compulsory Chinese regulations and certification procedures.

Identifying potential buyers and distributors
We'll help you establish a workable criteria for identifying Chinese associates.
We'll research, contact and meet with potential Chinese buyers and distributors.
We'll screen these potential Chinese buyers and distributors to select the best options for you to consider.
We can perform background checks and check public government records to further qualify contact personnel and businesses.

Product Promotion
We can introduce your product to qualified sales representatives.
We can help with brand recognition and introduction.
We can introduce your product at the right trade shows to achieve best results.
We'll set up and meet with potential buyers and distributors and negotiate terms in your favour.

Follow-on
We'll either represent your business, or make sure that you've got experts to accompany you in meetings with Chinese businesses.
We'll negotiate the terms of cooperation on your behalf.
We'll appoint expert interpreters and make accurate and consistent translations of your business communications.

Promotion support
We'll advise you regarding package re-design appropriate for the Chinese markets.
We'll make accurate translation of your point of sale materials, packaging, instructions, brochures, etc.
We can appoint and train staff to handle your day to day office activities, so in effect you'll have your own office in China.