Rob Arthurs | China Import Regulations, Chinese Consumer Buying Cycles, and Using Free Trade Zones Effectively

After diving into some of Rob’s background in China and learning about some of the products he’s moved into China, he discusses the regulatory environment around health products and how going an ecommerce route can help avoid rigorous registration and regularity requirements. We then ask Rob to talk about overcoming other struggles he’s faced outside of the regulatory environment (like fulfilling an order for 10 containers of pig feet for Chinese New Year) and why it’s important to be ready to back up your products’ claims before being asked to do so.

Rob then talks about the buying cycle in China, which he honestly admits is an anomaly could be based on any number of things that are hard to predict. He recommends paying attention to the local holidays in the country and taking clues from social media phenomena. When asked to talk about where brands typically go first, he points to the usual suspects of large metropolitan areas but suggests brands avoid the noise and expense of the typical cities like Shanghai or Guangzhou and look for smaller market entry points where it would be easier to penetrate. 

Rob then talks about the value of leveraging one of the 18 free trade zones in China to take advantage of lower import taxes to keep costs down, and to research the different zones designed to benefit different industries and products. He also advises not to expect any of the free trade zones to act the same or have the same rules.

Rob has tremendous experience working with Chinese distributors and talks about what a brand can expect when dealing with distributors. He points to a tendency of Chinese distributors to try and lock down country-wide exclusivity, and advises that you approach each province as if they were an independent country, and to move through China province by province as most have the population of a European country.