China market entry is complex and crowded. We make the path clear before you build.

CBEC lets you sell to Chinese consumers without setting up a Chinese entity. Products ship from bonded warehouses or by direct mail, and customs clears at the consumer level. You get access to JD Worldwide, Tmall Global, Douyin and RED. You do not get offline retail, and you do not get domestic eCommerce until you complete NMPA or SAMR registration. Most brands use it as a lighter way to test demand before committing to full infrastructure.

Start with sell-in if you are still validating the market. A qualified distributor buys your inventory at wholesale, owns the operational risk, and your team stays focused on global. Move to sell-out once demand is proven and you need full control over pricing, customer data and brand experience. A lot of brands we work with start sell-in for 18 to 24 months, then transition. Some never do, and that is fine if the distributor performs.

It happens. Roughly one in four engagements ends on a No-Go. Bad timing, wrong product fit, regulatory cost too high, the category already crowded. We tell you why, what would need to change, and when to revisit. You still get the full analysis. A clear No saves you twelve months and several million euros you would have burned figuring it out the hard way.

No. Nobody can. We can tell you whether the market math works, whether your category is winnable, and which model gives you the best odds. Execution still depends on your product, your patience, and your willingness to adapt. Anyone who promises a guarantee is selling you a story.

Big Four delivers great frameworks. We deliver the answer plus the operator who can build it. Our team has run Tmall stores, handled platform takedowns, negotiated with distributors, and shipped through bonded warehouses. When you ask us about CBEC compliance, you are asking someone who has filed the paperwork, not someone who read about it. Most of our work picks up where a strategy deck stopped helping.

Depends on what you sell and what you claim. Anti-aging cosmetics need NMPA special-use registration. Health supplements with functional ingredients need SAMR approval. Medical devices have strict classifications. Foods are restricted by ingredient. Phase 1 of our engagement checks CBEC eligibility before you spend another euro on the project.

Common problem. "Diabetic wound care" becomes "fragile skin daily care." "Immune support" may need full health-food registration. "Clinically proven" usually has to be rewritten. We adapt positioning to fit platform rules without throwing out the brand equity. The trick is knowing what passes review before you build the launch around it.

We pull the rejection notice, identify what triggered it, and tell you whether repositioning fixes it, whether a different platform works, or whether the product really cannot enter through CBEC. Sometimes the fix is a label change. Sometimes it is a Chinese formula adjustment. Sometimes it is a hard structural No. We give you the real answer instead of pretending the rejection did not happen.

We flag the change, pause the affected workstream and reassess. Recent examples include the 2021 cosmetic regulation overhaul, the 2023 NMPA updates, and ongoing CBEC positive-list revisions. Our compliance partners track this daily. If a new rule reopens or kills your case, we tell you immediately and adjust the plan, not at the end of the engagement.

Product specs, packaging artwork in editable format, current home-market pricing, regulatory certificates you already hold, your China objective, and your timeline. More detail upfront means a faster Phase 1. If you do not have everything, that is OK. We work from what you have and flag the gaps.

Phases 1 and 2 together run roughly 6 to 8 weeks. Phase 3 competitor deep-dive runs 4 to 6 weeks in parallel. Phase 4 financial model adds 3 to 4 weeks. From kickoff to a clear Go or No-Go, you are looking at 10 to 14 weeks. If you want us to source and negotiate a distributor on top of that, plan another 8 to 12 weeks.

A board-ready package. Feasibility and compliance report. Competitive benchmark book with one-pagers per competitor. Full financial model in Excel with scenario planning. Channel strategy with platform-specific recommendations. A clear Go or No-Go recommendation. If you add the distributor track, a signed term sheet or contract with a vetted partner. Everything in English. Translated assets on request.

We stop and talk to you, not to the file. If Phase 1 surfaces a compliance issue that breaks the case, we will not run Phase 4 and bill you for the model. We adjust scope, refund the unused portion, and you walk away with what you have. The engagement is structured in phases for exactly this reason.

Fees depend on scope and which phases you take. We structure as fixed-fee per phase, not hourly. Most full engagements through Phase 4 land between eighty and two hundred and twenty thousand euros. Distributor sourcing, if you add it, is quoted separately, usually a project fee plus a success component. We share full pricing once we have scoped the work in the first call.

No. We bill you on the engagement. The distributor does not pay us referral fees. That is deliberate. If we took commission, our incentive would flip toward closing a deal instead of finding the right partner. You can verify this in the contract. Some clients ask. We are glad they do.

Cross-Border launch through a distributor: from around two hundred thousand euros in working capital, then growth spend from there. Sell-out direct on Tmall Global or JD Worldwide: eight hundred thousand to one and a half million euros over the first twelve months for store setup, content, media and inventory. We model the exact number for your category in Phase 4 so you are not budgeting blind.

Our network covers beauty, consumer tech, F&B, mother-and-baby, premium home and select health categories. We start from a longlist of 8 to 12 names, screen for category track record and platform credentials, then sit with you to pick the 2 to 3 finalists you actually meet. We sit on your side of the table for the commercial negotiation.

Lighter than most clients expect. Roughly two hours a week from your project lead during Phases 1 to 3. Three or four working sessions of half a day each across the engagement. More involvement if you add the distributor track, because you are the one meeting the partners. We do the heavy lifting on research and modeling.

Through a distributor, no. They use their own licenses and assume the regulatory burden. For direct CBEC operations, yes, but not necessarily your own company. Chinese rules require any foreign brand selling through CBEC to designate a domestic service provider (境内服务商) who files with customs and assumes joint liability. You can set up your own WFOE or partner with a qualified third-party service provider. We help you decide which fits.

You do. All deliverables, models, competitor data, distributor research and contract templates transfer to you on completion. No retention clauses on the strategy. We do not resell findings to competitors, which is also written into the contract. Common-sense ownership, not legal trickery.