I'm looking to extend my business relationships overseas in the industry of exporting/importing, any advice?

The online food delivery industry is at its growth stage, especially after lockdown. There is a surge in demand due to the COVID-19 outbreak as the customers were unable to visit their favorite restaurants and opted for ordering food online. As a precaution, even the restaurants have reduced the sitting capacity in the restaurants, which is one big reason for the increase in online orders. Apps like Uber Eats, GrubHub, Deliveroo are high in demand with an increasing number of downloads each day. This is because consumer behavior has changed, people now feel it safe and more convenient to order food online during the pandemic to avoid crowded places. Even the restaurants that earlier did not have the online services available have started investing to digitize their food ordering and delivery system. However, the entrepreneurs demand platforms similar to top players like Uber Eats. Here is a blog that has explained in detail “How to build an app like Uber Eats”: https://www.fatbit.com/fab/how-to-build-an-app-like-ubereats/ To build an online food ordering and delivery platform you can either opt for a ready-made solution that is a cost-efficient investment or build the website/app from scratch. Food Delivery Solution like YoYumm is suggested based on the features they offer to their customers and the after-sales services provided by the Yoyumm team to build an app like Deliveroo and Just Eat. For more information, you may visit: https://www.fatbit.com/online-food-ordering-software.html For entrepreneurs who are planning to invest or start their online food ordering and delivery business, this is the right time as the demand in the market is high for food delivery services. On the other hand, if we talk about the offline food business, they too are finding their way back. Offline food joints and restaurants have resumed their services after lockdown with more safety and sanitization precautions for both their customers as well as staff. Although the footfall is comparatively less still the business owners are looking for a better solution to cope up with the new norms and change in customer behavior. Take Away The online food delivery marketplace provides customers with the choice & convenience of getting food delivered at their doorsteps with a few taps on their mobile phones. To deal with the change in norm due to the pandemic online service for food ordering and delivery is in demand and entrepreneurs/restaurant owners should pay attention to online food delivery services. You can either create your own platform to receive the order and deliver food or register your restaurant/food joint on platforms such as Uber Eats, Just Eats, and Deliveroo to make the best use of the new digital opportunities. Suggested read: Looking To Start an Online Food Delivery Platform? Take a Look at These Key Features (https://www.fatbit.com/fab/depth-feature-analysis-create-successful-online-food-delivery-platform/ )

Many of the large established maunfactures attend trade shows, such as the Canton Import and Export Fair. The key is to look for manufactures that already supplies to established brands. Once the manufacture meets the QA standards of the large brands, their quality remains consistent regardless of the company they produce for. Most of the time the minimum order quantity they request are up for negotiation. Same for the sampling cost. Most manufactures are willing to wave the sampling cost if a production order is placed at a later time. Sourcing at the end of the day requires a lot of ground work. It takes time and effort to locate the right suppliers, visit and audit their facilities, and prices negotiate. However, this really saves money in the long term because you will have solid supply chains you can count on and trust. One way to approach this is to consolidate. Consolidate the number of suppliers, and make each sourcing trip count by finding multiple suppliers at once. Best of luck in finding the right suppliers for your products!

COSTCO AFFLUENCE: You might be surprised to know that 54% of CostCo's Wholesale Club (CWC) members are considered wealthy, or "affluent", with only 15% just "getting by" or "poor". BUSINESS VS CONSUMER: Approximately 24% businesses, 76% individual consumers. Even though business customers drive about 60% of CostCo's revenue, about half of that is for home use, so it's about 30% business revenue and 70% individual consumer revenue. HOUSEHOLD: 35% of CWC members have 2 person households. 56% have three or more in their home. I have a ton of paid tools at my disposal for market research. For much more detail on other demographic data for CWC, along with info from BJs and other wholesale clubs, set up a call with me on Clarity.

#1) PROVE THE ASSUMPTION: Start with a dropshipper's existing products to figure out what sells best before you spend money on manufacturing and warehousing. Amazon is perfect for this - they will pay you 4%-10% to promote 253,000,000 products (http://bit.ly/1q2M85R) - you can sign up at https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/ Alternately, get very small amounts of the product (maybe even just buy some from a competitor) and try selling them on ebay and amazon. Nothing hurts more than having $50,000 of imported product gathering dust in your fulfillment warehouse while listening to a voicemail from a debt collector. #2) SOURCING There are several options here. Many people prefer Alibaba.com. Warning - if you use Alibaba, you are stepping into a tank of pirahnas. There are more scam "manufacturers" on Alibaba than real ones. Use Escrow or AliSecure Pay if you buy. If the supplier says they only take T/T, Western Union, Moneygram - just say no! I prefer American Made when possible. If you're like me, try Ariba's Discovery Service - http://bit.ly/1q2NFZu - which will allow you to find suppliers with a physical presence in the USA. Note: Many things can be made on demand (someone purchases, one gets made and shipped) instead of in 500+ manufacturing runs. Start there if you can - Books on CreateSpace.com, Clothes on CafePress.com, Playing Cards on MakePlayingCards.com, etc - to test out your exact product. #3) START YOUR SITE This is an entire topic in itself. One of the fastest ways I know for newbies to start in e-commerce is with a SquareSpace.com store. Other options include GoDaddy.com and BigCommerce.com. If you can stand to use the templates they provide instead of trying to customize them, you'll save yourself a lot of hassle and expense - customization usually looks terrible unless a designer/coder was hired to do the work. If you do customize, find someone on odesk.com or elance.com. #4) MARKET Figure out where your competition is advertising. Are they getting free, "organic" SEO results on Google? Using social media to drive billions of dollars of sales? (NOTE: That was a joke - don't count on social media as the nucleus of your marketing campaign. Please!) Are they paying for Google ads ("PPC"), buying email lists, using strategic partnerships for promotion, relying on shopping portals, using banner advertising, or something else entirely? There's probably a good reason - figure out what it will take to play in those waters. At the same time, try to find a small enough niche that you can win in it. #5) BEWARE Be careful about artsy things. If someone is attracted to something artistic, it's usually because there is a story behind the art for them, or because it's cheap. If you're going to try to sell artistic things, you may want to consider doing some serious research first about who has been successful in that area. Look at etsy.com to see handmade artsy items (very cool). #6) WORTH A LOOK Worth checking out as you start your journey: Art.com, yessy.com, Artfire.com, ArtPal.com #7) DEEP FOUNDATION If you need help, reach out for a 15 minute call and we'll discuss a go-to-market strategy specific to your goals.

From your question it appears you want a shelf-stable (no refrigeration required) product with a long shelf life. There are a number a factors that will determine your products shelf life, to be clear, adding a seal is not the only requirement to create a shelf-stable product. The good news is that syrup has a low water activity, which means it will be easier for us to make it shelf-stable. My recommendation is to hot fill this product and use an induction seal. This process would then need to be validated with appropriate microbiological and sensory testing. I can setup a process that will create the product you desire with a shelf life that you and your customers would be happy with. If you would like to go into detail I would be happy to schedule a call.