Understand Market Demand and Standards:
Conduct Market Research: Gain a comprehensive understanding of consumer preferences, competitors, and policy support in the target country. For example, the Middle East favors large-sized doors and windows, Northern Europe prefers minimalist designs, and Southeast Asia emphasizes cost-effectiveness. At the same time, analyze pricing, selling points, and customer feedback from leading local brands to identify opportunities for differentiated competition.
Familiarize with Standards and Regulations: Different countries have strict requirements for building doors and windows, such as CE certification in the EU, NFRC certification in the U.S., and AS 2047 certification in Australia. Enterprises must ensure that product materials, manufacturing processes, and physical performance comply with local standards.
Choose Cooperation Models:
Direct Export: Companies can build their own foreign trade teams or use e-commerce platforms to sell folding doors directly to overseas distributors, contractors, or end consumers. For instance, some Chinese door and window enterprises export to Australia through independent foreign trade companies.
Cooperation with Local Distributors: Partner with strong local distributors abroad, leveraging their knowledge of the market environment, sales channels, and customer preferences to promote products. For example, Mexin Group cooperated with U.S. distributor DKS Company, which handles product sales in the American market.
Establish Joint Ventures: Invest jointly with overseas companies to establish joint ventures, combining capital, technology, market knowledge, and manufacturing strengths to develop and operate markets together. For instance, Chengdu Lip Udun Door & Window Co., Ltd. set up a joint venture with an Australian company, introducing Australian technology and concepts to produce innovative door and window products.
Project-Based Cooperation: Collaborate with general contractors of large international projects to supply folding doors as part of the project package. Mexin Group, for example, supplied door products for the Boten Economic Zone in Laos and the new international airport project in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Participate in Trade Shows and Online Promotion:
Attend International Exhibitions: Actively participate in globally recognized building material exhibitions such as the International Builders’ Show (IBS) in the U.S. and the Sydney Build Expo in Australia to showcase folding door products, highlighting their advantages and attracting overseas clients.
Online Marketing and Promotion: Use mainstream overseas media, industry websites, and social media platforms to promote products and increase brand awareness. Companies can also handle customer inquiries and orders through online channels.
Ensure Logistics and After-Sales Service:
Optimize Logistics and Delivery: Choose reliable logistics partners to ensure products are delivered safely and on time. Depending on the product and customer requirements, flexibly select air freight or sea freight, and handle packaging and customs clearance properly.
Improve After-Sales Service: Establish a sound overseas after-sales system to promptly resolve customer issues during use. Companies can set up service centers in target countries or cooperate with local maintenance companies to provide installation, repair, and maintenance services.
Focus on Risk Management:
Customer Credit Risk: Before cooperating with overseas clients, investigate and evaluate their credit status to avoid working with unreliable partners. For large orders, it is advisable to purchase export credit insurance (such as Sinosure) to reduce potential losses from defaults.
Transaction Security Risk: Establish secure payment terms. For example, with new clients, use a 30% deposit + release of the bill of lading after balance payment; for air freight, require 100% prepayment. Companies should also guard against risks such as hacked email accounts or clients abandoning cargo at ports. A safe and standard approach is to agree upfront on payment terms, such as 30% deposit and full payment upon delivery—an effective and secure trade practice.