Selling and getting your goods to market

To improve the chances of successful business expansion in Belgium, you need to consider a few key issues. Sales presence, for instance, should be a top priority. Will you sell directly? Will you trade over the internet? Perhaps trade shows are more suitable? Could you benefit from a local partner in Belgium who knows the market? Here are a few fundamental choices:

When considering the distributional needs of your business, it is essential to account for the logistical factors which could affect it. These include things, such as:

• Your goods: are they fragile, expensive, perishable? Do they need to be kept at a certain temperature?
• Are your goods live, or considered dangerous, and, if so, can you meet the requisites of customs and excise, or health and safety?
• How regularly will you deliver? Daily, weekly, monthly? Can you find a distributor who can accommodate this?
• Can you foresee the dates / times you'll need to distribute?
• Have you worked out the transportation costs? Air freight and couriers are fast, but also the most expensive forms of freight.
• Reliable and invariable collection and delivery times, which offer accurate predictability and time-traceability
• Awareness of transit times so you can plan around them
• Freight security
• Fuel price fluctuation
• Effect of congestion or delay

Infrastructure

The infrastructure of a country could prove integral to the success of your business. Consider logistical reasons that your business found domestic prosperity: was it the ease of which you could run it? Reliable distributors, maybe? An efficient transportation network?

It is important to contextualise these issues with the country you are expanding to: ultimately, can it offer the same logistical benefits?

Getting your goods and products to market is an important part of business and needs to be quick and cost affective. Belgium is close to the UK so the most convenient methods of shipping is by road or air. Generally for one off orders many British international haulage companies operate daily consolidated freight deliveries to Belgium and organise delivery to the final customer through local partners within 48 to 72 hours. You may choose to use air freight if your goods are compact, fragile or high value goods, however this may not be any quicker than using road. Express delivery companies offer a door-to-door service that is transparent to the customer and the supplier, but may be more expensive.

In the early stages of researching your market it is advised to research possible use of a freight forwarder. Do not wait until the product or good is ready to be shipped before arranging shipping as this can delay your business and you may not get the most cost efficient route.

Wholesale

Traditionally, wholesalers are used for selling low-value directly to retailers and, occasionally, the public and businesses. It is an economic way of targeting and reaching vast numbers of people quickly, and frees you from the burden of contacting retailers individually.

Distributing products in bulk not only means products sell faster than one-at-a-time, but it also allows your business to grow at a quicker rate.

Dispensing products and collecting money is generally considered more manageable and easy than dealing with a variety of customers. However, both the wholesaler and retailer will add their own mark-ups, meaning your profit margin will be less than full potential.

Just like with distributors, do some meticulous research into the wholesalers available. Here are some things to think about when choosing an appropriate wholesaler: