6 Tips On How to Find Buyers For Export in 2025

The single biggest question that I’m consistently asked is, “how to find buyers for my exports?”.

This really is the $64,000 question and one that until now, had no simple answer. It was a matter of networking, cold calling, door-to-door visiting retailers and wholesalers, trying to find the right contact within a company or selling online to end customers through your own website or a platform like Amazon.

Finding different types of business buyers who are actually involved in in the buying process, is important. It’s a process and a road that must be travelled to find the ideal potential buyer for your business. Each potential buyer is unique and as they demonstrate significant interest they may be skilled with the capacity to negotiate the best sale price for their business, so be prepared to negotiate.

The ways outlined below are tried-and-tested, proven to be successful ways to find buyers but they’re time consuming and you need thick skin for the rejection that your going to be faced with, so make sure to get yourself in the right mindset.

Updated: How to Find Buyers for export in 2025

7 Ways to Find Buyers:

1. Using the latest software to search and find buyers of your product
2. Trade Fairs – an age old business but still effective
3. Test The Market With Retailers Such as Ebay, Amazon and Etsy
4. Google/ChatGPT Search for “Wholesalers of {My Product} UK”
5. Contact National Embassy’s
6. Contact Chambers of Commerce
7. Find and Research Facebook Groups

Before You Start, Don’t Forget…Market Research

It’s very wise to spend time researching the market for your export in various countries and areas before you take the leap. Ask questions on forums, Facebook and live focus groups and any other ways of getting some opinions from local people. This will be valuable as you can’t beat the feedback from local people who live and work in your target area. Asking about pricing and even product opinion can be very beneficial feedback.

Golden Tip: Don’t ask your mum, grandma, partner, family and friends what they think of your new product(s) because they all want to see you do well, encourage you and give you positive feedback so it’s hard for the people that love you to be 100% honest with you and tell you that your idea is a bad idea, they don’t want to hurt your feelings.

YouTube: Finding Buyers and Closing the Deal

In the YouTube video below, Alan Bracken, offers a more hands on approach with practical advice for finding buyers for export and best tips on how to close the deal, reviewing his 40+ years of experience and hundreds of deals that he’s been involved with.

Before You Start…

Define Your Offer

Before you start looking for buyers for your products you must define your offer. This means understanding and being able to clearly articulate what makes your product(s) unique and why it should appeal to your buyer in the global market. Here are some things to consider:

1. USP: What sets your product apart from the competition? Is it quality, price, innovation or something special that makes your offer stand out in the market.
2. Target Market Needs: Understand the specific needs and wants of your target market. Your market research help you to find the gaps your product can fill and tailor your offer to meet those needs.
3. Competitive Pricing: How much is your product? Determine a pricing strategy that reflects the value of your product but is also competitive in the global market. Consider import costs, market demand and competitor pricing.
4. Value Proposition: Clearly communicate the benefits and value your product offers to your potential buyer, which should be aligned to the needs and expectations of your target market.

By defining your offer with this clarity you will be in a position to close deals with buyers, giving you an edge and the likelihood of long term relationships with your buyers.

Create a Buyer Profile

Creating a buyer profile is an important step to finding the right buyers for your exports. A buyer profile is a detailed description of your perfect buyer including their characteristics, needs and preferences, both wholesale and retail. This will help you to find and target the right buyers for your products.

When creating your buyer profile think about:

• Demographics: What are the demographics of your perfect buyer? Company size, industry, location?
• Needs and preferences: What are the needs and preferences of your perfect buyer? Product features, pricing, delivery requirements?
• Buying behaviour: What is the buying behaviour of your perfect buyer? Purchasing frequency and decision making process?
• Pain points: What are the pain points or challenges your perfect buyer is facing and how can your products or the services you offer help to solve these?

By creating a buyer profile you will be able to find and target the right buyers for your products and increase your chances of success.

Be Visible Online

Today, we of course live in a digital world and being visible online is key to finding buyers for your products. This means having a professional website and a presence on relevant online marketplaces and social media platforms.

When being visible online consider:

• Website: Make sure your website is professional, easy to use and lists your products or services.
• Online marketplaces: List your products or services on relevant online marketplaces like Alibaba or Amazon.
• Social media: Have a presence on relevant social media platforms like LinkedIn or Twitter and use these to engage with potential buyers and promote your products or services.

By being visible online you will be more visible and reach a wider audience of potentially the best buyers and increase your chances of finding the right buyers for your export business.

Then You’re Ready to Find Buyers

Use the Latest Software – Finding Buyers on Vujis.com

Vujis.com makes finding buyers easy by transforming complex trade data into a simple, searchable format. Through its trade data search tool, users can search by product and instantly see the companies that are already importing those goods. This allows you to find active buyers with a click of your mouse, without leaving your desk and make contact with those buyers.

Once you’ve found your buyer, Vujis.com provides key details such as company names, contact information, and even the company’s trade history. This allows you to reach out directly, present your offering, and arrange a meeting. By using Vujis.com’s data-driven approach, you can very efficiently make contact with the right buyers and maximize your sales opportunities.

Trade Fairs and Industry Events

Going to trade fairs is an age old business but still a great way to meet potential buyers and promote your products and services. These events give you a platform to showcase your products, meet potential buyers.

When going to trade fairs and industry events consider:

• Research: research the event and the attendees to make sure it’s relevant to your business and you will be able to meet potential buyers.
• Preparation: prepare a clear and concise pitch and any marketing material such as brochures or business cards.
• Follow up: follow up with any leads or contacts made at the event to make sure you establish a relationship and potentially a sale.

By going to trade fairs and industry events you will meet potential buyers, promote your products and establish relationships to find the right buyers for your export business.

Do It Yourself

With so many websites now online that allow you to sell your own products, why not consider listing your products? The biggest and most well known are Ebay, Amazon and AliExpress and as they’re international this is a great place to start. Register an account and add your products to these sites and see if you place any orders. If you do, you can be more confident about demand for your product in that country or area.

There are many smaller but well known sites online that specialise in smaller retailers and handmade goods such as Etsy and NotOnTheHighStreet. A small amount of research for your target country I’m sure will reveal others.

Best Practice

If you take this approach, it’s worth spending some time studying the best practices for listing your products so that you can take full advantage. For example, make sure photos of your products are well lit and show enough detail. Take photos from various angles so potential buyers can clearly see all of the product and consider even developing a short promo video. Write a descriptive title and description and answer any of the most common questions about the product so users don’t have to contact you and wait for a reply in order to get the answer to their question. When they’re ready to buy, you want to make sure there are no obstacles in the way and they “Buy Now”.

Customer Service

Make sure you offer an excellent level of customer service. Answer questions promptly, when you have your confirmed orders, ship your goods quickly and don’t delay. Update the customer with shipping and tracking codes so they can keep track of where the delivery is. Zappos has sold over a billion dollars in shoes and it built this off the back of excellent customer service. There is a lot to learn from Zappos and how they made customer service their priority and in return their customers gave them loyalty.

We All Read The Reviews

In return for great customer service, ask for a favorable review which are obviously important for credibility. This gives your next potential customer confidence, not just in your product but your service. With some good reviews, they may not hesitate to click the “Buy” button.

Bringing It Together For Wholesale Export

Once you’ve sold some products and built up a base of customers and good reviews you can use this to a second advantage. Contacting wholesalers and having a credible track record can be a big advantage. To be able to say that you’re already selling your products in the local market reduces risk to the wholesaler. If you can say that you’ve already sold “X” number of products in their country and you have “X” number of positive reviews that your potential wholesaler can verify, this is a great way to begin a pitch of your products and will no doubt get the attention of both wholesalers and retailers.

This begs the next question of how to find wholesalers and retailers for your products?

Google OR CHATGPT Search

It may sound obvious but Google as we know is the king of search so start here or more lately, the rise of ChatGPT. Engaging in trade shows and missions in foreign countries can also be an effective strategy to expand your market reach. For example, if you are exporting rugs or carpets from Turkey, perform a Google search on “rug wholesalers in UK”.

You’ll get plenty of wholesalers that you can contact and see if you can generate any interest in your products. Wholesalers received many emails and calls, being offered products all the time, so try and stand out from the crowd. A well written email, with clear and professional photos of your products is a good start. We will write another blog on the best approach to contacting buyers and wholesalers.

National Embassy’s

This is more of an old school approach but still relevant. National Embassy’s want to promote trade between their country and the world and are there to help create these links. Contacting the commercial section of a country’s embassy and asking if they can provide you with a list of wholesalers of your export product is well worth doing.

This also works in reverse, if you are looking to source particular products from a country, contacting the embassy of that country is a good idea. For example, some years ago, we had an entrepreneur looking to source pine furniture to import to the UK and sell. He contacted the Cypriot embassy in London, where he was based and asked if they could help. Cyprus has many pine trees and is well known for its furniture so this was an obvious place to source. The embassy was happy to help and promote its exports and give a list of reputable and well established factory wholesalers and our entrepreneur went on to negotiate some great deals and setup a successful business.

Chambers of Commerce

Chambers of Commerce (e.g. British Chamber of Commerce) are another good resource to make contact with, much like national embassy’s. The Chambers want to promote international business and commerce and have close links with many industries and companies in local areas. They can offer advice and help and often support businesses by offering training so are able to certainly push you in the right direction.

We recently wrote an blog on how to sell globally from your own website so we won’t go into any detail on this avenue in this blog but there are plenty of other ways to find buyers for exports to think about.

Verify Buyers’ Details

Verifying buyer’s details is a very important step to working with genuine and reliable partners. This includes researching the buyer’s company, checking for any certifications or licenses and verifying their contact details.

When verifying buyer’s details consider the following:

• Research: Research the buyer’s company, website, social media and online reviews.
• Certifications and licenses: Check for any certifications or licenses the buyer may have, such as ISO 9001 or CE marking.
• Contact details: Verify the buyer’s contact details, email, phone number and physical address where possible.

By verifying your buyer’s details you will be able to work with genuine and reliable partners, reduce the risk of fraud or non payment and increase your chances of finding the right buyers for your products.

Import Export Training Online Courses

If you’re looking to break into international trade as a career or setting up your own business, ABTS® Training offers online courses, taught with a series of pre-recorded videos. Study at your own pace, no deadline to finish and lifetime access to your course.

Our courses teach you the practical knowledge you’ll need to know to trade successfully, confidently whilst maximising your profits. Taught by Alan Bracken, with 40+ years of commercial experience in logistics, he skips all the theory you’ll never need to know but teaches you the practical side of how to move your goods around the world.

Check out our reviews on TrustPilot to see just how our courses have benefited our students.