In a recent Clubhouse event, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong talked about the strategic decision that the crypto platform had to make early on: fly under the radar of regulators and hope to scale without drawing attention, or partner with regulators and become the most trusted name in their space. They went with the latter, and set their #1 priority as, “Be the most trusted.”
Personal care brands often find themselves facing a similar decision when expanding to new markets. Do we ship our products and hope that regulators don’t notice, or do we partner with regulators and ensure that we can gain and maintain access to new markets?
Brands that don’t have an in-house regulatory compliance team may find that the easiest path is to hire a consulting firm that specializes in product compliance. These outside firms can check ingredients against restricted and prohibited lists, ensure labels display the proper information in the required languages, file market entry documents where required, and even serve as the brand’s in-country representative in some cases.
However, the average cost to ensure compliance hovers around $3,000 per product per country. That’s a big up-front cost if you aren’t sure how much global demand there is for your product or which markets you should expand to.
Passport Shipping can help you evaluate this market expansion decision without the exorbitant financial and administrative burden. When you partner with Passport Shipping, you work with an international logistics provider that understands the global regulatory landscape. We’ve moved cosmetics and personal care products to over 140 countries and know what it takes for a brand to enter a new market.
Best of all, you gain access to our network of partner providers — regulatory consulting firms, testing labs, international trade lawyers — that can help you answer very technical questions and even address obscure use cases. We’ve done the heavy lifting of evaluating hundreds of providers to put together a list of best-in-class specialists
Whether you’re considering a market expansion for the first time, or you have the goal of becoming the most trusted brand in your space, Passport can help you understand the international trade and market-specific requirements to take your brand global. Reach out today to speak to an international trade specialist.
