Bridging the Gap for New Market Entrants in APAC 

Entering a new market is challenging, particularly in the diverse and dynamic APAC region. Entrepreneurs often navigate a maze of unfamiliar regulatory landscapes, cultural nuances, and logistical hurdles. Recognising this gap, industry veteran Sam Bedi, envisioned a solution that would enable a seamless experience for new market entrants.

Navigating a New Market

Sam's extensive experience extends over 25 years, launching and scaling Consumer Brands, including Health & Wellness, across all key Asian markets and beyond. From this, he saw that success in a new market did not just hinge on a great product. Access and awareness to capable and experienced vendors, informed resources and robust infrastructure and systems were equally important. Sam knew that it took a robust ecosystem to support a new market entrant and set them up for successful trade worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. In Bizinnox, Sam found a partner to bring his vision to life with the right technological expertise.

Our CEO, John Cherian, has a rich history of entrepreneurial success and an impressive tenure as solution architect across multiple industries in the APAC region. John and Bizinnox set about creating a platform that would bring together people, processes, and systems and offer entrepreneurs a streamlined, resource-rich ecosystem to launch and establish their brands in Key Asian markets.

Approach

Discover and Explore - Identifying Key Operational Challenges and Gaps

John’s discovery process follows the javelin experiment methodology. He focused on identifying and understanding the challenges that consumer brands face when they expand their business to the APAC region.:  

• A brands' market penetration efforts were hindered by their lack of knowledge and understanding of (various) markets and users.

• Identifying and vetting reliable partners for the required capabilities, including regulatory compliance, import, distribution, and marketing, as key criterias for effective operations.

• Inefficient communication and follow-ups with partners were due to lack of proper SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures. 

• Legal requirements and regulatory compliance for brands to establish varies across the APAC region. Brands need an expert with a good understanding of the regional requirements.

To address and tackle these challenges, we envisioned a solution—iTradeHub, a digital platform that would enable brands to enter, expand, and establish in the Asian markets faster, more easily, and more efficiently. This solution would help streamline and orchestrate the market discovery process, identify the right partners and vendors, and facilitate trade for brands. 

Derive and Experiment

We adopted an incremental experimentation approach. Based on the insights from the discovery sessions, we started by developing MVPs for the platform modules. Through validation and user testing with brands and partners, our team assessed the platform’s effectiveness and identified areas for improvement.

We refined the platform with multiple iterations, including improving and refining features to align brands’ and partners' needs. 

We also developed a streamlined digital process for vetting and onboarding partners with standard evaluation criteria, ensuring further efficiency and quality.

Design & Engineer

With the basic stakeholder profiles and preferences in place, we developed a market discovery module that allows aspiring brands to easily find and identify market partners with matching capabilities and terms. This module, added with market consultant recommendations, thereby simplifies the partner selection process. The platform also enables trade agreement negotiations and collaborations. 

We foster seamless collaboration between brands and partners through chats and a calendar booking system, making it easier for them to communicate with each other.

In addition, iTradeHub also enables brands to gain comprehensive market insights, allowing them to understand their target audience, competitor analysis, market readiness assessment and market expansion planning.

Outcome 

Sam’s extensive experience, coupled with John’s expertise was a cornerstone of iTradeHub. John's nuanced understanding of various challenges and gaps, anticipating business scenarios and strategic insights into cost management and operational efficiency were all critical aspects that ensured that iTradeHub solved various challenges brands faced when establishing in APAC.

The development and implementation of iTradeHub have yielded equally tangible results for brands and partners.

• Built a robust network comprising over 160+ partners across 12 Asian markets, supported by 5 dedicated market consultants.

• Successfully onboarded 15+ brands and has helped them expand their business to 7+ markets.

For brands, iTradeHub standardizes and streamlines the process, making it a one-stop solution and enabling them to find and collaborate with reliable partners and vendors easily. Whereas, for partners and vendors, iTradeHub offers increased visibility from across the world. Through iTradeHub, market consultants can connect with brands and partners and access market analysis and advisory reports.