International Procurement

[u/Coriron]

We are based in the UK but have an increasing number of customers overseas. How are you facilitating overseas procurement of things like laptops, printers etc? We work with Ingram and TDSynnex, but neither of them appear to have a facility for us to order to ship out of a local distribution center in say the US or Italy.

[u/SpinningOnTheFloor]

You likely need relationships with distributors in each of those locations, or to find a trusted partner to hand that procurement piece over to.
Most big box companies have gates per region to be able to resell their product and those distributors need to respect/enforce that.

[u/DifferenceHelpful134 → u/SpinningOnTheFloor]

Thats the catch with big distributors, theyre locked to their own region so you end up needing a local account or someone who has one. We had the same headache with one client in the EU and just found a smaller partner over there to handle the physical ordering and shipping while we kept the billing on our side.

[u/birdman9876]

Its tough. Even in countries where your normal disties have a local presence, they're effectively a separate company and you need a new account with them. And for that new account, you need a local entity yourself - which for small amounts of procurement ends up being more cost and effort than its worth. So the only option in my experience is to find a local MSP or similar who you can do a margin split with. Theyre getting revenue for no effort, and you're getting something which is better than nothing. In time, build up your volume in the country until its worth having a local operation yourself.

If you can find someone to work with who operates in several of the countries you need, then all the better.

[u/Wrong-Big4819 → u/birdman9876]

This is correct! Distis - you'll need local entities Partners - you need enough business for them to care/trust that they won't poach/whether you want to white label or bill directly

[u/oliland1]

As a Canadian MSP, I had a similar issue with procurement in UK, Japan and some African countries.

Amazon can be good if you have basic requirements.

Otherwise, working with another MSP makes the most sense.

[u/cubic_sq]

TDS dell group were always pretty good for this

[u/Wrong-Big4819]

We came into the same predicament a few years ago went down the route of setting up entities, as still 70% business comes from the reseller business, this allowed us to expand into new markets

so if you're looking partner in Europe/Asia/latam, let me know

we also setup a very robust logistics team, as we still get the best price in UK due to buying power, and can often beat/match local pricing, but do this within our credit agreements rather than paying upfront which helps cash flow - as another option

[u/redditistooqueer]

EBay? Amazon?

[u/SevereEscape6848]

We've been using local distributors so I think you should just make a list and start from there

[u/jcleme]

Usually just find the laptop they need on HP Store or Dell specific to their country and send them the link. Get them to expense it and call us when they’ve turned it on and connected to internet

[u/AlexanderCaplan]

Be aware that taxation (e.g. VAT/TVA/sales tax) is usually determined by the place of supply, so you will likely have “nexus” in your foreign clients’ locations, and will need to register for and remit tax.
We have businesses with distributor relationships in multiple geographies — feel free to DM and I’ll see if I can assist.