Historically, for every Method Soap or Seventh Generation, there are 50 other brands on retail store shelves that are just like the majority. Rigid bottles, boxes with inner bag liners inside, metal tins, glass jars, etc. We call this The Sea of the SameTM and it's not letting up. We believe brands are still doing things this way for a few reasons.

A reported 95 percent of North American companies think of their packaging at the last minute. They have a general assumption that the price difference between how their product is packaged, and how their competitor's is packaged, can't be that much. They also think no one really cares. However, there are those using their packaging as a competitive advantage, and not only are they building their sales, their margins and brand equity have soared.

Using an agent or doing it yourself can both work effectively.  However, doing it yourself is much riskier, unless you have an experienced person in whichever overseas country you are dealing with to manage the project

The key difference between the "big boys" in any industry, and those who are always one step behind when dealing with offshore suppliers, is the fact that the latter does not have what is referred to as "boots on the ground."

There will always be companies that feel squeezing every penny from every part of an order is the best way to run a business. Unfortunately, these companies also think this will work with freight from overseas suppliers. However, one of the most misunderstood and frustrating components is shipping.

One of the key areas...if not THE key area that companies neglect to understand is the need for a US Supply Chain partner.  However, even before this comes up, many companies poo poo going overseas for the following reasons (even though they've never tried it)

This isn't rocket science, but we have perfected this process over the years.  We copied exactly what the major retailers do (our COO is former Kmart exec).  Some things may seem trivial but we know how critical all the pieces need to work in order to not only source properly but deliver on time.

We are all consumers in some way or another. We all walk down store aisles and have that talk with ourselves as we look at the products we are interested in. We'll pick up something, read the packaging, look at the ingredients and calorie count and most likely review the size of the packaged product.