How Business Owners Can Use Import Genius
There are several applications for Import Genius, especially if you own your own business (for many readers, this represents the single largest investment they will ever have, perhaps even larger than their primary residence).One good idea is to research the sources your wholesale distributors use to get their products. Within minutes, we were able to use the database to find the name of the manufacturing firms that provide goods to the wholesale distributor of luxury watchcases to one of our retail stores. This would, in effect, allow us to contact the manufacturer directly, place a large order overseas, and cut out the middleman, improving our gross margins from 50% to 85% - a massive boost in profitability that allows us to generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional income each year. In another case, we were able to see the Asian-based firm that produced the gift packaging boxes used by one of our luxury soap vendors.
How Investors Can Use Import Genius
One widely advertised benefit of Import Genius for investors is the use of import and export records to time stock purchases and sales based upon product launches. A few years ago, for instance, one could see huge shipments of new products coming out of Asia for Apple, Inc. in California. Long before the company had announced it was launching a new product – the iPhone – you could have seen that it was ordering large quantities of finished merchandise and having goods sent to the United States. That one bit of insight could have generated substantial profits for your trading portfolio, as well as paid for the Import Genius subscription fee.According to Ryan Petersen at Import Genius, "We have a variety of users in the investment community, including several prominent equities analysts and a large number of asset managers. Our users in the financial community are looking for insights into the operations of publicly traded companies. We're able to provide them detailed information on the supply chain of these companies with near real-time speed. Instead of waiting for the quarterly report to determine the health of a company's product lines, they receive updates on an ongoing basis."
How Import Genius Works
For regular customers, Import Genius requires a 12-month contract that varies from $99 per month to $399 per month. The more expensive package allows you to see all records and perform up to 300 searches per day. Subscriptions are billed monthly, making the cash flows more affordable. It is likely that the cost of a subscription will be tax-deductible, lowering the real cost even further; be sure to consult with your own qualified tax adviser before making a determination.Once you sign up for the Import Genius service, the contract agreement will be faxed to you. Simple sign it, send it back, and the automatic payments can be billed to a credit card. You’ll typically have access to the records within 24 hours, or 1 business day.
Once you’re in the system, you’ll have access to an easy-to-use interface that allows you to run searches, as well as export data files into Microsoft Excel using a standard spreadsheet file. It’s extremely useful. Also, you don’t have to search by company – you can, instead, look for things such as “perfume bottle” or “wicker baskets” to find suppliers. We were able to systematically break down the components of Chanel perfume, tracking down everything from the manufacturer of the bottles to the spray pumps to the cosmetic containers.
Import Genius vs. The Competition
According to Mr. Petersen, Import Genius is the best tool of its kind for investors because the "service is faster and easier to use than any other source of import data. We're also a lot less expensive, so we've brought the data into the reach of individual private investors for the first time."
