What to Include in Your International Distribution Strategy
Technology and e-commerce have made it almost a requirement to compete in global economy if you want your business to succeed. But expanding beyond domestic borders can be overwhelming. How do you start creating your international distribution strategy to enter the global market?
Let’s go over the basics.
What to Include in Your International Distribution Strategy
There are several factors that will help you create your organization’s international distribution strategy.
Foreign Market Research: The most exhaustive and expensive, but equally as vital is market research. You must learn the rules, regulations, culture, competitive landscape and barriers to identify the most optimal foreign markets to enter when drafting your international distribution strategy. You may also look into using a company such as Lilt as they specialize in marketing translation services. This helps marketing teams to make sure that every piece of company text is reading in your company’s tone and voice even in another language. Functions that should be involved in this process include not only Marketing but also R&D, Labeling and Finance.
E-commerce- It’s no secret e-commerce has taken down big brick and mortar giants. It’s the most convenient sales channel for consumers. If you sell online and plan to sell digital downloads, then you won’t need a distributor. However, if you are selling products that will need to be shipped, you may rely on your distributor to aid in shipping, logistics, warehousing and promotion.
International functions– Entering a foreign market can lead to barriers local firms don’t experience. This can make it difficult to enter and profit. Choosing a distributor with local offices in your target market is the most cost-effective. In the alternative, your firm can set up international departments to aid in your entrance, reputation and brand promotion.
Aligning with Distributors- Your distributor should have extensive experience in importing and shipping so that your workflow is seamless in foreign markets. They should support issue, understand foreign rules and regulations and work directly with your suppliers to reduce cost and stress. If your distributor does not offer these benefits, you can hire export management consultants and firms to help, however that will increase your overall costs. As such, we recommend properly vetting and selecting a distributor, read more about this process here.
Distributor Margins: MAP pricing should be established with your distributor to determine what the retail price and distributor purchase price. This is extremely important, especially when it comes to avoiding a gray market downfall.
The most important factor in this review is your distributor. Its knowledge, experience, partnerships, networks, ability to reduce barriers and lower your costs.
We recommend reading our summary of selecting international distributors here.
Super Health Center is not just a distributor. It is your single source solution for all your distribution needs. From logistics and fulfillment to brand development and international expansion, we can reduce your barriers and costs while increasing your bottom line. Check out our full fleet of services here.