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China market

Pricing for China: the cost stack European companies forget

A price that works in Europe rarely survives the journey unchanged. Not because of margin pressure, but because several layers sit between your invoice and the shelf.

France → China

Companies set an export price by discounting their European price, then discover that the shelf price is double what they expected and their positioning has moved without their consent.

What sits between you and the buyer

  • Freight and insurance to the port, then inland to the warehouse.
  • Import duty and VAT, which vary by category and are not always what a first search suggests.
  • The importer's margin, then the distributor's, then the retailer's — three layers, not one.
  • Platform commission and promotion, if you sell online, which is rarely optional in practice.
  • Marketing that the channel expects you to fund, and that is negotiated as part of the price.

Work backwards, not forwards

Start from the shelf price that makes sense for your positioning in China — which may be higher than in Europe, not lower — and work back through each layer to the price you can accept. If the number that comes out is below your cost, you have learned something important before signing anything.

Being cheaper is rarely the winning position for a European product in China. Foreign origin often carries a premium expectation, and pricing below it can read as a quality signal you did not intend to send.

Keep reading on this.

China marketDistributor, agent or your own team: choosing how to sell in ChinaThe real question is not which is cheapest. It is who ends up owning the customer relationship — and that is very hard to reverse.China marketWhat entering the Chinese market actually costs in the first yearNot a price list — nobody can give you one honestly. A map of where the money goes, so you can build your own number and spot the lines people forget.China marketSix mistakes French companies make on arrival in ChinaNone of them are about the product. All of them are about sequence — doing the right thing at the wrong moment.

If this raised a question about your own project, tell us where you are — the first conversation usually clarifies more than a proposal.

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