So how does one enter the import-export industry?
One: You can use your own funds to launch an douane import/export company.
Most people consider engaging in international purchases of their own products using their own funds and accounts. For most people, this is the most sensible and ideal approach. Purchase an item, pay for it, receive title to the products, import them into the nation you wish to sell them in, resell them, and repeat the process.
Two: Import-export brokers connect buyers and sellers.
You can help others by sharing your knowledge of a certain nation if you are familiar with it, especially if you have visited there frequently and are aware of what is produced there and where to find the providers of those goods. In the United States, in the city where you reside or elsewhere, you can contact a retail store buyer and offer to be his buyer, particularly if he carries goods from Thailand, for instance, if you have visited Thailand frequently, perhaps even lived there before, and are familiar with Thai products. In this scenario, the US-based retailer might employ you to place an order for a Thai product he offers. You will place the order for the item in Thailand, organise the shipment, pay for it using his funds instead of your own, and ship the item to his store in the US, naming it as the consignee on the shipping documents. The US-based retailer-importer will pay you the agreed-upon commission in exchange for your services. The commission fee is variable; it is not a set proportion. The cost may vary depending on how much time you invest in assembling the shipment, how much money you spend on the export side of things, how much money you spend in the nation of origin, how often you have to visit the manufacturer’s plant, or how you deal with the export shipping firm. The retailer will be the importer, and he will be responsible for paying for the items as well as the preparation of the export documentation, packing, and real international freight from Thailand to wherever his shop or warehouse may be located. Your commission may be agreed upon in advance as a certain percentage of the invoice’s total value or as a fixed sum. In this case, you are leveraging expertise rather than your own money. You can start the following day. Naturally, you might not wish to offer your services as an import export agency of Thai goods if you have never visited to Thailand.
This involvement can take one of two fundamental forms. one like the one mentioned above, where the importer for whom you performed your services pays your commission. Similarly, though, a Thai producer might send you a sample of his product while you’re in Thailand so you can show it to potential customers in the US. If this is the case, you may return from your final trip to Thailand as a manufacturer’s representative, though perhaps without an exclusive agreement to represent his products in the United States. Instead, you may return with the understanding that, in the event that you locate a potential customer for his product who would like to place an order, the manufacturer, who is based in Thailand, will pay you an agreed-upon commission on the shipment.
By connecting buyers and sellers, where commissions may be paid to you by either or both of the parties, the buyer as well as the seller, it is evident from these two examples that you can work with other people’s money in addition to just your own. This method is the simplest way to launch an import export business grossiste.
Agent for Import and Export Sourcing
You can engage in the same kind of import export business as stated above by working as an independent import export sourcing contractor, but with greater obligations throughout the full import export process. Consider the scenario where a clothes retailer in the United States hires you to locate a manufacturer in Bali, Indonesia who can produce clothing in accordance with their product design standards. With the product drawings you received from the shop, you would contact several potential manufacturers in Bali to create samples of the product that the retailer would eventually order in bulk. Both the sample and a quote sheet outlining quantity discounts and delivery times would be prepared by each manufacturer. Based on product quality, cost, and delivery time, the retailer would choose one of the suppliers you had sourced, and you would then be asked to award the contract to that provider. The retailer would then become the real importer and consignee on the shipping documents, and you would have to oversee production, quality control, document preparation, and payment for the items using the retailer’s funds rather than your own. As mentioned above, the retailer-importer would pay you on a commission basis, plus expenses, and you might be maintained on a retainer to be available the next time importily.
Four: A broker of export shipments
The last example is centred once more on connecting buyers and sellers using other people’s money. In this illustration, a Thai producer is giving a container load of a good, like toys. Whatever the quality of each item or style within, the shipment is ready to be dispatched and must be purchased in its current state. The cargo may be mixed-up and include both appealing and less desirable goods, including possibly seconds or discontinued goods. The exporter-manufacturer is trying to find a customer. You are an agent who is aware of the potential customers and buyers for these kinds of goods. It might be a shop in Miami, Florida, Berlin, Germany, or any other nation where you are aware of customers for this kind of merchandise. Samples are given to the buyer-importer by the seller-exporter. You can manage the entire sale transaction on what might be a back-to-back letter of credit utilising your bank in Denver or wherever you are located if the buyer agrees to purchase the container at the agreed-upon price. The buyer in Berlin sends you an L/C for $40,000, and once the money has cleared your bank, your bank sends an L/C for $30,000 to the seller’s bank in Thailand. You keep the difference after deducting bank fees. You never get title to the items because the container travels directly from Thailand to Berlin, Germany, without passing through the US. You merely facilitate the transaction and link the seller and the buyer. It goes without saying that countless other brokers may help arrange the export shipment if they learn about the manufacture-exporter in Thailand’s export offer.
