Guide to Choosing the Right Product to Import Into Canada

When starting a small business, it can be challenging to determine all the aspects of your business, including what products you are going to sell and import. When importing to Canada, you need to plan ahead and consider things like Canadian import tax, duties, and other aspects of Canadian imports. 

We created this guide to choosing the right product to import into Canada to make your decision a little easier. 

When examining the market, you will also want to determine if you want to go for a low cost, lower quality product or a higher quality, higher cost product. While a cheaper item may be easier to sell, it may not necessarily give you the best reputation in the business if your goal is simply to sell many items for less. On the other hand, providing a high quality item that fewer people want will provide you with a better reputation among customers, but may make it harder to sell your product. 

Successful companies like Apple and Amazon have succeeded because they created something that everyone wants. What can you offer, in both products and services, to make your business stand out? 

Ask people what they want

What do people in your local area want that you can import into Canada? It doesn’t hurt to ask your friends and neighbours, or even survey potential customers. When selling a product, you will need to have a strong understanding of your target demographic and how to market to them. This can begin by asking people in your immediate circle, but you will need to expand beyond that to maintain a successful business. 

Choose a product that you like and use

No one will buy what you’re selling if you don’t believe in it yourself. If you want to be able to fully back the product that you are importing into Canada, you will need to believe in it and what it does for you and your customers to make their lives better. Once you’ve figured out what you want to sell, then you will need to make sure it is easy to import to Canada, has low cost import duties and taxes, and is something your target demographic genuinely wants or needs. 

Travel abroad for research

This advice might surprise you, but an excellent way to get a handle on what products are selling well in other countries is to actually visit them. If you can afford to travel abroad for business research, it’s the perfect way to find goods to import into Canada that may create a successful business model. 

We hope that these tips and tricks will help you find the product for your business to import to Canada. The Government of Canada website also has many tips and tricks for importing goods to Canada.

When you are ready to import, you’ll need a great customs broker. Canadian customs brokers can also help you answer some of these questions and any questions you might have about importing a specific product.

 If you are ready to get started, get a quote from Welke.