Sourcing your trade marketing merchandise overseas can reduce your cost by 50%. However this can be a big risk. How do you manage it to make it worthwhile?

14/04/2021

Trade marketing merchandises are important to create an advantage over your competitors. If your trade marketing is good enough, your retailer partners will always promote your products over a competitor, giving you better mileage and longevity for your business.

 

Equally as important as Trade marketing merchandises is the sourcing of the customised trade marketing merchandise, as this will give you a competitive advantage over your competitors.

 

Do you source it with a specialised global Promotional Products Marketing Agency like DTC World Corporation to save cost or do you source it locally and pay higher price as you are worried about the risk of customising it overseas?


Today we would like to share some tips on how to manage the sourcing of your trade marketing merchandise overseas.


1) Using the RIGHT supplier

Trade merchandise are usually complicated and require a high level of customization. When customising it overseas, it is often prone to error. If the supplier is not experienced with producing trade merchandises, the sampling process can be delayed for up to 3 months.




An example is the Oil Drum Table (image above) created for Tiger. The customisation required us to coordinate with 3 different production partners as there were different components used to create the Oil Drum Table. We worked with a wood specialist to create the customised table top, a metal specialist for the oil drum legs and a printing specialist for the special textured finishing on the metal oil drum legs. 


Some may ask, why did we not work with just one partner, for example, the metal specialist to help us create whole table? This will not work as the metal specialist is not familiar with the other components required in building the perfect table set. They may need time to coordinate in terms of communication and getting the right finishing, down to the correct placement of the logo.


2) Packaging is important

The proper packaging is important when transporting fragile items which may break during fulfilment of the trade merchandises. Suppliers usually are not familiar with the right packing methods. You would need to pack it to ensure there are enough protection for the edges and a small gap to ensure that the trade merchandises do not move around too much during transportation. 




For example, for the Coca Cola Drinks Push Cart (image above), the carton and inner carton had to be custom made to ensure maximum safety during transportation due to the fragile nature of acrylic.


3) The design phase shipping cost consideration

Trade merchandise are usually bulky by nature to ensure that it stands out. During the design stage, the ability to design the merchandise into a compact packaging for easy transportation is an important consideration. 




One good example would be the Niugini Ice Floor Stand (above image). As the Floor Display Stand is very bulky, shipping cost will be very high if you source this overseas. Thus, during design phase, DTC will dismantle the floor stand into smaller parts that is easy to assemble, so that when we ship it out, it can be packed more compactly just like the IKEA compact box and easily be assembled when it reaches the destination country.

 

Creative designing can help our clients to save on their warehouse and transportation cost.


5) Ease of installation

Due to its bulky nature, Trade merchandises like light boxes and floor stand displays usually require local installation. It is important to select a partner to support on save time and effort.

 

At DTC World, we have a specialised installation team to provide assembly and installation services in your local markets. 


6) Maximise your savings by combining orders with your other countries’ orders

Currently, for trade visibility items, each MNCs have a local procurement team to customise their own trade merchandise. As a result, there is lack of consistency among neighbouring markets such as Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. They also miss out on the potential group bulk orders saving opportunities.

 

If you are able to find a right partner with the right Global Fulfilment capabilities, you will be able to design a new range of more exciting trade visibility items and at the same time, enjoy maximum savings by combining the order volumes among all the participating countries.




Since 2018, DTC World has been helping many clients in achieving high quality production with maximum cost savings through our FAST E-portal platform and assisting with the global fulfilment of these orders to the local markets effectively.


Contact us today if you are looking for an experienced team that can help you produce the highest quality trade marketing merchandises while saving cost.


You may be interested to read this blog:

DTC World Corporation, APAC's premier Promotional Merchandise Marketing Agency with Global Fulfilment Capabilities


Click here to read other Blog posts. 


Disclaimer
This blog space is where DTC shares with our readers the Marketing Premiums, Promotional Products, POSM merchandises & Advertising Campaigns that we have come across in the industry. DTC does not advocate any brands or products mentioned in the blogs.