How do I find retailers and sales reps for imported products?

[DreamFuel]

Hey everyone, I would like to hear some advice from all of you about importing products.

I have a friend that flew to China last year and attended the Canton Fair in search for an opportunity to start an import business. He knew nothing about importing prior to this trip and in my opinion didn't learn enough during the trip to begin a promising import business. I've known him personally for a long time now and one of his qualities as a person is he's extremely ambitious and self motivated. Sometimes to an extreme to where he makes business decisions before doing proper research, invests money, and then realizes he should of first thought about all possible outcomes before continuing with his plan. Is he a risk taker? Indeed he is.

This time time though he took to much of a risk and invested approx. 50k in products from China. While at the Canton Fair last year a few kitchen products caught his eye that he just had to try importing. He "thought" there would be a promising demand here at the states, but because he didn't do any thorough research he didn't "know" for sure. On that "thought" he bought 2 containers and waited 3 months for them arrive.

Where the problem begins is after the merchandise arrived, he realized it wasn't as easy as he thought it would be to sell all that merchandise and make a profit. Coming to me later for some advice on how to find him a rep, I just couldn't give him an answer because I myself am not to familiar with the retailing business.

So here is my question to all of you, especially to you who have experience and knowledge with this type of industry, how do I go about and help him find a SALES REPRESENTATIVE or a RETAILER that would be interested in buying his products and selling them???

Problem with becoming a vendor for Bed Bath & Beyond or Walmart type retailers is, they require a good amount of reference from past clients. He just started his company and has none of that. So we can't hit up them big retailers. Should we start by looking into local shops then instead?

Thank you all for any contributions you can make.

[JohnYE]

Hi DreamFuel,

This is a great question. I think starting with local shops is the way to go - then build from there. As for your question about finding retailers and sales reps, I'm going to post a link to your question on our Facebook Fan Page and see what our fans there have to say. We'll see if we can get some good ideas coming your way.

Best of luck to you!
John


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