China operations

China is the world's most important developing consumer market. If your company has a competitive product, this is the place to sell it.

Usually companies have to decide between setting up a wholly-owned subsidiary (high fixed cost) or working with a distributor (no control over marketing, little incentive to sell your product to new customers or take risk).

Asia Trading & Consulting Ltd. (Asia Trading) offers a third alternative: We provide you with all the required organizational infrastructure such as office space, a show room, warehouse and sales agents on a shared per-use basis. As a result, you can stay in total control over this lead market, and ensure that costs remain at manageable levels.

Introduction

Due to the immense economical growth from exports and trade, China's population has become wealthier. Especially the middle class income has grown, and with it the demand for higher quality- and luxury goods. China's interest in imported goods, especially from the United States and Europe has always been strong, but is unparalleled now.

Every industry is different and depending on your goals, your company needs different services. We have structured our offerings in four parts you can choose from. they include sales, marketing, infrastructure and supply chain services. You can find more information about each part in the next section.

Infrastructure

This part is required for most China-ventures. It includes everything you need to get up and running with confidence and certainty. You can get an office for your sales staff, a show room and legal advice on intellectual property rights.

You can use the office address to distribute samples or keep in touch with contacts from trade fairs. If you hire local sales agents, they can get a desk, fixed line phone and a computer with all required software packages to start working.

Some of the tasks you can get done with our infrastructure-package are:

  • receive and consolidate sample shipments
  • relocate staff from Europe for temporary projects
  • work during a business trip
  • hold meetings
  • hire temporary staff for market research, sales or other simple tasks
  • official presence in China to put on promotion material or on your website
  • show new products
  • train sales representatives
  • launch parties for new products
  • get legal advice on trademarks and intellectual property rights
Supply Chain

Running a distribution center with attached warehouse is a major investment. You need someone trustworthy on site to organize shipments, keep inventory or receive returns. Especially in the early market entry phase, this investment is tied to a lot of risk.

Asia Trading is offering shared warehouse space and shipping services to greater China. By keeping a small stock of your product in the local market, we can quickly dispatch samples and smaller orders. Your clients do not need to take care of customs and benefit from faster delivery, compared to international air shipments.

Our supply chain services at a glance:

  • bulk-import your goods
  • customs processing
  • warehousing
  • organize international and domestic shipping
  • online inventory report of stored items
  • online shipping orders
  • use our import license to make products available on the local market
Sales

Getting your product into China and having an office is one thing, but the actual goal needs to be to increase sales.

Our tailored sales services help you to quickly increase sales and make your China business a vital part of your global operation. This is the most popular package among our customers. If you don't have a strong customer base in China, this is the package you will want.

Depending on your product, we have two main sales channels available: The traditional approach is through local sales agents. They are employed by Asia Trading and specialized in a single product category. You can set commission levels and run sales training classes for your sales agents. This gives you maximum control over how your product is advertised and sold.

A more modern approach is selling via the internet. Our online sales team will make your product available on the country's main online platforms and offer it to its 575 million strong online population.

In terms of sales, our key services are:

  • employ local sales agents
  • make connections to local wholesalers and distributors
  • get listed in local super markets
  • presence on China's main online platforms
  • consolidate payments
Marketing

Our marketing package will prepare your product for the local market. We recommend to include it, before getting the sales-package. You will get an in-depth market report including volumes, product categories and typical distribution channels. We can also organize focus groups or product testing with a limited audience.

As a second step we recommend to run a product adaption project. Even if your product is generic, you will want to adapt manuals, packaging and sales brochures. It is important to understand that Chinese thinking can be surprisingly different from what you might be used from customers in your home-market. Colors and numbers can have different meanings, products often need to be advertised in a radically different way. We will help you to understand your local consumers and make your product fit for a successful launch in China.

  • get in-depth market research information
  • know what consumers think by deploying focus groups in different regions
  • adapt your product to the local market
  • produce marketing material
  • organize advertising campaigns