Not an agency. Not a supplier. A market execution partner
China is the right market. Getting the execution right is the harder part
China Market Entry and Growth - New Zealand and Australia
A partner who can walk into a distributor's office in Beijing, not just send emails from Auckland, or Sydney.
Whether you are entering China or already stalled, the gap is always execution on the ground.
Entering China - First-time exporter
"We met distributors at a China trade show, came home excited. Nothing ever signed."
Already in China - Stalled programme
"Our distributor agreed to everything at the start. Now they don't answer."
Large brand - Fragmented China programme
"We spend significantly in China every year. Nobody owns the commercial outcome."
These are the three situations we hear every month
you are not alone
01. Entering China
You have a product ready for China and a board or business case to back it up. You may have attended a trade show or had early distributor conversations - but nothing has converted into a real agreement yet. What you need is a structured path from ambition to first commercial outcome, with someone who owns the execution on the ground.
- Channel architecture confirmed before any budget is committed
- Distributors identified, vetted, and engaged on your behalf
- First signed distributor or business partner within 12 months
02. Growing in China - Stalled
You're already in-market, but the commercial results aren't following. Your distributor agreed to everything in the initial meeting - and has been largely unreachable since. Sell-through is flat and you have no real visibility into why: is it pricing, shelf placement, the sales team, or something else? You may have a digital presence that was set up at launch and never properly activated. You need a partner who will diagnose what isn't working, govern the relationships that matter, and run a proper year-round programme - not just add more activity to a programme that's already underperforming.
- Distributor audited and reset or replaced within 6 months
- Digital presence rebuilt and activated (e.g. Tmall, Xiaohongshu, WeChat)
- Monthly board reporting your CEO can read and trust
03. Established - Needs Integration
Your brand is performing in China, but your programme is fragmented. A separate contractor for the stand build, a different agency for digital, another firm for PR, and nobody owns the commercial outcome across all of it. You’re spending more time coordinating suppliers than driving results - and the board can see the spend but not the return.
- B2B trade show programme, B2C digital, and distributor management as one calendar
- Single retainer replacing fragmented supplier spend
- One executive dashboard your Group CEO can read without editing
the pattern
Built from cross-border experience
The product is ready. The plan is approved. What's missing is someone in China who actually owns the outcome.
Channel confirmed before budget is committed - no six months undoing early decisions
Distributor identified, vetted, and managed - by someone who walks into their Beijing office - not sends emails from Auckland
China presence active year-round - monthly board report your CEO can read without translating it
One partner across the full programme. Accountable for outcomes
what we do
how we work
A clear programme. A defined path from where you are to where you need to be
01
Understand
Channel fit, pricing, and compliance assessed against the real market - so the programme is built on what is true, not what looks right on paper.
02
Enter
First distributor identified, vetted, and engaged. Trade show programme built around pre-qualified buyer meetings - not just a stand.
03
Activate
Distributor managed on the ground. Digital platforms live. Monthly board report the CEO can read and trust.
04
Grow
Trade show, digital, and distributor management running as one calendar - compounding instead of starting from scratch at every show.
We've done this before. At the highest level
proven delivery
Delivered end-to-end pavilion execution for a major Middle East national energy company at the China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai - for their debut at the expo.
including the preparation timeline infographic and the full entry playbook.
CIIE 2026 is 5-10 November in Shanghai. Preparation starts now
time-sensitive
why Harviso
What this means for you
You contract locally. We execute in Beijing
NZ entity, NZ invoicing, NZ accountability - with a team physically on the ground in China doing the work.
One contact owns the whole programme
Not four contractors pointing at each other when something goes wrong.
You see results, not activity reports
Measured on signed distributor agreements and qualified buyer meetings - not decks about how busy we were.
Straight answers to the questions that matter
questions we hear often
The trade show is only valuable if someone follows up in Chinese, in person, with the right relationships on the ground. Most New Zealand and Australian brands attend, collect contacts, come home, send a few emails, and wait. Harviso's Beijing team follows up in person - qualifying the distributor, checking their real portfolio and warehouse capacity, and moving the conversation toward a commercial agreement. The show gets you in the room. We turn that into a signed relationship.
This is one of the most common situations we walk into. A distributor who is unresponsive from Auckland is often very responsive when someone from Harviso walks into their office in Beijing. We assess whether the relationship is worth resetting or whether a transition to a more active partner is the right call - and then we manage either outcome on the ground. You cannot hold a Chinese distributor accountable from 9,000 km away. We can.
Yes. New Zealand and Australian clients contract through Harviso Limited, our New Zealand legal entity. Delivery in both cases is from the same on-the-ground Beijing team - no offshore payment complexity, no need to wire funds to a Chinese entity you cannot independently verify, and no currency risk from contracting in RMB.
The first month is structured around getting the foundations right: a market readiness assessment, a channel architecture decision (B2C via distributor or Tmall versus B2B via direct business partner), and a target distributor or buyer longlist. By month two or three, we are in active outreach. We do not spend 90 days writing a market entry report - we spend it building the commercial pipeline you need to show your board progress.
That is actually the best reason to talk to us now - before commitments are made. We can help you assess where you are, identify the gaps between your current position and a realistic market entry or growth programme, and give you an honest view on whether the timing is right. Many of our most successful engagements started with a readiness conversation six months before the client was ready to move. We would rather tell you the truth early than see you waste budget on a programme you are not ready for.
If your China programme includes attending events such as CIIE or other major China trade shows, our Events and Pavilions team handles the end-to-end delivery - from booth design and compliance through to on-site management and post-event commercial follow-through. See our Events and Pavilions page
