We own a retail business in the USA. There is an item that we sell that has a very strong following. People get very excited over it the first time they try it. Probably 95% of the people who try it for the first time are visibly excited and all "Wows" - and maybe 75-80% buy it again.

It is made outside the USA and I believe that one company has the distribution rights to this particular brand inside the USA - after emailing the company the best way to buy pallet size quantities of the product they said "our main distributor" - which is who I am buying it from already. There is this brand of the product and another brand that is distributed by another company. As far as I know, these are the only two brands currently being imported into the USA of this type of product.

I think that are leaving a ton of money on the table. This item should be on the shelf of every retail store in America, specifically gas stations and i can basically guarantee that it would sell very well. It is literally our best selling item - but we sell ~30x more of this item to people coming to our store specifically to buy this item than we do to our regular customers.

Imagine if there was a Bosnia Butterfinger that is only sold by a wholesaler to Bosnian Store and the Bosnian Store is selling 30x more these chocolate bars to customers coming in to only buy this one item than they are to the regular customers who shop there weekly...

So my options are as follows:

1. Ask distributor how big of a discount they will give me for pallet size orders and start attempting to resell it as a wholesaler.

Problems:

1. Distributor can easily cut me out if they see I am successful - or maybe they will just be happy to be selling more of their product?

1a. I don't know if they will even allow it.

2. Retailers figure out that I am not the main distributor and go directly to the source.

2. Start importing a different brand. There are currently only two brands that are imported into the USA but in the country of origin there are tons of brands.

Problems:

1. This is a bit over my head as I have only previously ordered from wholesalers and have not done any importing directly myself.



What do you think the best way to go about this is?

Going from 95% visibly excited and wow over the product and saying it should be on every retail shelf in America, and then saying specifically gas stations, makes me believe it is extremely gimmicky and not that great? (What am I missing about that?) Was your example implying that it is in fact a candy bar? Moving this into something mainstream will vary based on the type of product it is, so clarification there would be helpful.

Assuming it is a candy bar, online distribution that goes along with the retail side, so that customers can get it in large sizes for re-orders, would work pretty well. That said, if your goal is mainstream, you should try to contact the supplier directly and set up your own distribution deal. No use trying to build this thing out massively with a distributor who is keeping it limited for some reason.

If there are tons of similar brands available in the country of origin, go direct and start bringing in your own product. Either the original brand or one of the competitors.

Depending on the volume you could private label it so your brand is out there rather than every gas station trying to cut you out.

OP, it's very interesting... i see ton of things i think people would buy if they were exposed to them.

but then on dragon's den/shark tank, they seem to be really uptight about whether the product already exists i.e. has to be a "new product" type for them to get excited often. there are exceptions. i remember women's technical underwear. they loved it but i'm thinking there's got to be tons of stuff like that out there already.

as an analogy, i would be there was tons of stuff out there like lululemon before it became wildly popular, but LLemon made it hot and cool

anyway, i'm rambling but i think you are probably on to something good.

as per your question, i would just buy from a competitor. maybe try to get an exclusivity deal.

i don't know much about it, but the manufacturer probably doesn't want to give you exclusivity until you prove yourself and you don't want to financial commit too far ahead.

maybe an exclusivity contract that depends on minimum orders each month or quarter.

one specific thing that i absolutely love and everyone who eats it loves is persian nougat. wonder if your idea is like that.

1) This sounds like some kind of cleaning product from a backward country of origin. Have you considered the reason it might work so well is that it uses ingredients that are dangerous? That is my first theory. I'm positive there is a ton of stuff I can get in China Town or Little Odessa that is pretty impressive until I find out it is carcinogenic.

2) The second issue is can they even scale? The US market is massive. It is very possible that the reason they are so small is that they are at maximum rate of expansion. If that is the case and you have eliminated #1 as a concern then you either come in with money and take a stake or you make a deal to find someone who will for a percentage.

3) Regarding become a distributer on your own -- Some B2B sales include a contractual clause that would prevent you from selling the product B2B. I highly doubt that is the case here but as you said if you built distribution they could upon seeing that just crush you anyway so if you wanted to go that route you should do something formal with them.Pick a few states and negotiate for the rights to them with the possibility of adding other states at set fees.

OP, can you give us the broad category? is it food?

It is a beverage.

In that case, definitely try to get your own brand/private label thing going. Without a brand you are the weakest link in the chain and easy to eliminate if the thing takes off. Google up on the coconut water wars for some pointers.

If the product is as good as you say someone will make a ton of money, just a matter of if it is you or someone else.

Good luck

You want to sell a product for which another company probably has distribution rights and which has to go through two middlemen to get to the retailer. It's not ideal, for sure. I've been involved with low level both import and export so I'll say the following. There are really three ways you can go here:

1. Play within the rules, start selling it to local shops, and do the legwork to build it up. Once you have a reasonable portfolio of growing sales, approach either the manufacturer or distributor for a good deal for you to continue growing the product. A few things you need to note with this:

- People are lazy and stupid. Especially middlemen in mid level products. If you're willing to do the legwork, and have evidence to back it up, they're often happy to let you run and cut you a good deal. People like free money. If the distributor knew how to sell it and was motivated/smart enough to see the potential, it wouldn't be sitting there.
- Even the most worthless idiot is skeptical and won't offer nothing for nothing. You need to have growing sales to back it up before doing a deal.
- People are *******s. If they see opportunities they can take off you, they will. Which is why you need to sell as a local shop kind of deal; make them think it's something built on legwork which they can't replicate. Don't approach chains as you will certainly get cut out.

You won't get rich doing this. You'll make reasonable money until it gets big, then you're ****ed. If you're going to take something on you think is an excellent opportunity, your goal should always be to get rich.

2. Import another brand
- Lots of pros, few cons. You'll need quite a bit of capital for stock, warehousing, etc. There could be significant legal/paperwork to be done. Etc. But once set up, you can go big at good margin and with the protection of a distributor/importer agreement. This is how people become wealthy.

3. Make it yourself. I don't know what kind of beverage it is (it wouldn't work for wine for example) but you can get nearly any recipe bottled by a contracted third party. Even wine you can bulk buy and bottle and brand yourself. The benefits:

- Own labeling, you can never be cut out and all marketing efforts flow to you
- Larger margin, you can undercut competitors rather than have them undercut you
- You can perfect it/play around with the recipe/branch out
- You can respond to market changes
- Your own quality control
- This is how people get rich (and also go bust!)

This might seem like a big deal, but people much dumber and less capable than you take on things like this and make it. There are services these days that make it possible to get nearly anything done by third parties from prototyping to mass manufacturing with good quality control.

Personally, I'd start selling the existing product to local shops (and possibly away from your home town) as a wholesaler and see if there truly is a demand. Keep you head down and don't mention what you're doing. See if the demand you think exists, does exist. If it does, I'd personally go #3 if possible.

Come up with your own product and copy this product, branded completely differently of course. First thing to do is go to a source who can break down the ingredients and form recipes for your new product.

This route is the only way you are going to make worthy money for your time off this.

Call this US distributor and get someone on the phone who deals with this beverage account and get information. Ask them any questions you might have. Why can't you find this in more local stores/will you be able to in the future....whatever relevant things you want to know. Become their friend. More then likely they make a ****ty salary and don't really care about talking to you regarding their business and the back story on this product. Tell them you are a customer and just really curious and you love the product.

Never be afraid someone is going to steal this idea and beat you to market (they already have). You want feedback on this idea/product. I'm pretty sure the company and distributor would like this product on every shelf in America and probably have taken large steps to do just that and get it in front of the public.

In terms of actual product....Figure out what they are potentially lacking or not doing correctly or how you can improve this product to make it better in a U.S market (all natural/organic if it is not, caffeine/no caffeine, make it healthier, etc.)

My guess is that you and others may like this but it is not a large commercially viable product in the u.s for good reason. You're probably better off telling us or other people the product and get their ideas on what these might be as opposed to being cryptic.

Just because a small subset of people are really into something and you witness this over a small sample size does not mean it translates well into the general population. You may have really horrible taste or this product is good, just not great. Not to mention scores of other issues.

Upon doing more research, there are actually at least four different brands. Each brand is the brand of the wholesaler. They aren't going out of their way to market it because they all sell literally hundreds of items. For all I know, each brand is actually made by the same manufacturers or might as well be.

It is a fairly generic item. It is not Coconut Water but that is a good example. I actually think there is a higher differential between quality and taste amongst the Coconut Water brands than there is with this item which tastes very similar from the two brands I have tried - they could both be made by the same factory for all I know.

So while branding/labeling could certainly have an effect on the sales levels and consumers can be irrational and perhaps prefer the first brand they started drinking even though the other tastes the same... it is basically the same stuff.

I am not trying to be cryptic, but I don't want this ending up in a google search because I am like 90% going to go through with this.

As for why the distributor is not trying to get it on shelves themselves, these guys sell like 500 products and this is just another. Even with Coconut Water, that was a bunch of regular clowns like me who got it going. Coconut Water wasn't invented in 2010.

It's pretty easy to contact the manufacturer and buy directly from them. They can slap your label on there or you can have someone else do it. There are lots of articles online about importing from China. It's the same with any country.

If you want some more specific advice, you can PM me.

i agree totally on coconut water being around long before it exploded in popularity

there is a foreign mass produced drink i absolutely love that i've never noticed for sale in USA (altho i know it is avail in usa stores somewhere)... wonder if it's what u are looking at

seems you've got good advice in here... just spend some $$$$ on lawyer advice and some papers

Yep, look to coconut water, Jagermeister, and Red Bull for lessons on how to sell foreign beverages in the US. The Jäger and Red Bull importers are both billionaires btw. They got rich selling stuff that anyone could've imported.

Good luck OP. If you have any questions on how to import goods in bulk, just ask.

what beverage is this? just curious...

can someone please tell this to the sharks and dragons? i get so tired of their obsession (maybe KOL mostly) with a product being new.

i feel like all but the most tiny niche product already exists somewhere already.

add tablets to the list... existed for years but apple made them popular/cool

Is there anything proprietary about the product?

no