parallel imports

[CD]

1) The main point is finding the best countries with good exchange rates. (when you buy from PIs their prices can increase & decrease. It depends upon when they were purchased & what the exchange rate was at the time!)

2) Buying in bulk (in any situation) will nearly always get a better price. The seller would give a better price so their money isn't tied up in stock.

3) Finding the best shipping costs. I know some PIs who have their own vans/lorries to cut down on prices.

The profit margins that 'official' retailers are working to are massive! It is possible - otherwise no one would do it.

[UK2004]

I think people have been slightly mislead on parallel imports here, firms selling parallel imports don't import from a shop, they woudl for example go to a wholesaler in Italy who is selling cheap buy 10,000 pounds worth of stock and bring it back here then sell it, or they talk to the official distirbutor in Poland for example and agree to purchase stock and sell it in the UK< they don't go buying from retailers. Obviously you could if you intend to play on ebay but not for a viable business.

[dumb5]

uk2004, what do you mean by wholesaler? dont the retailers by from the distributors, i.e. ittiari used to be the distriibutor for d&g, versace and others? so who exactly is the wholesaler?

so if the retailers by from the distributors who do the parallel importers by from? theres no way the distributors would risk their license by selling to parallel importers so that only leaves the retailers. i.e. a retailer would place a bigger order with the distributor and sell on the extra to parallel importers. or maybe the production factory might over produce and sell to the parallel importers but that would be very risky on their part.

the only other option is most "parallel imports" are really just fakes. lets face it theres no way to determine if a "parallel import" is real cos theres no official documents.

[UK2004]

No you are wrong, distirbutors in foreign countries will sell stock to parallel importers abroad, it happens believe me, and yes you can confirm things aren't fakes, very simple take stock to the head office in your country of the designer, I did it and the head of sales verified that the stock was real and that it was only released as a rang ein Italy and didn't come to the UK and was a parellel import.

In Italy in Florence there are huge wholesalers as in Italy they don't disitrbute just through an offical distributor lots of stock goes to wholesalers as well and this is where many parallel importers source their stock but distributors in developing economies especialy will also sell stock. I found this out by going and speaking direct ot head office and through dealing with officla distirbutors for other labels, it's not as clear cut as you think.

[CD]

Agree UK2004.

I was trying to explain it on an easier leavel so it could be understood. But yes PI are on a very large scale.

[harrypothead]

this confuses me 2. who sells 2 the wholesales? do the brands sell 2 the wholesales or the distributors sell 2 the wholesalers? do wholesalers just get old stock or current season?

[dumb5]

i still dont get where the wholesaler fits in. as pothead says who supplies the wholesalers. to my knowledge brands dont work with wholesalers they work with distributors like ittieri and fourmarketing.

[Hallerton]

I was told by a m8 who knows about this that a lot of the big brand parallels are actually fakes from Turkey, India and the Far East.

[CD]

I was told by a m8 who knows about this that a lot of the big brand parallels are actually fakes from Turkey, India and the Far East.

NO WAY!

Fakes would come from 'God knows where' & would have to be imported (well smuggled in) but that doesn't mean all imports are fakes. They are VERY different.

How many people took advantage of cheap or tax free cigs, spirits, aftershave, perfume etc when they went on holiday? That is basically parallel importing but on a very small scale!


This might help explain a bit better, from a legal firm :

The French company, Zino Davidoff, sells a range of luxury fragrances under the trade mark Cool Water on a worldwide basis. All of these products, no matter where they are sold, are physically identical. However, because of variations in market conditions, the prices of Cool Water fragrances are far from identical in different markets. For example, wholesale prices in Singapore are no more than half those found in the UK and the rest of the EEA.

In South East Asia, Davidoff granted a local distributor (Luxasia Singapore) exclusive rights to import, promote, sell and distribute Cool Water products in eight territories, including Singapore. Although the distribution agreement with Luxasia contained the following clause,

The Distributor undertakes not to sell any Products outside the Territory and shall oblige his sub-distributors, sub- agents and/or retailers to refrain from such sales",

it did not contain a clause that expressly required Luxasia or its sub-distributors etc to restrict the freedom of their purchasers to sell and supply Cool Water products only to those that they (Luxasia) might think fit.

It followed that Cool Water products were sold by Luxasia in Singapore and elsewhere in South East Asia without any notice appearing on the packaging forbidding the resale of the fragrances outside the confines of Luxasia's territory and without any legally binding contractual obligation being imposed on purchasers which restricted their freedom to sell Cool Water products to other (non South East Asian) markets.

Given the huge differences in price between Davidoff's products in Singapore and the UK, it is not altogether surprising that a parallel importer, A & G Imports Limited, decided to import Cool Water fragrances from Singapore and offer them for sale in the UK. In view of the sensitive nature of the identity of the source of these goods, A & G also decided to remove certain batch number codes from the packaging of the Cool Water goods that they imported from Singapore.

[dumb5]

but do brands sell to wholesalers? i was under the impression that brands allow distributors to distribute their product in a controlled way to retailers. so fourmarketing and itteriari etc distribute the brands products to the retailers so there are no wholesalers involved?