The first order from a new market is the most over-analysed and under-structured decision in distribution. Over-analysed because everyone tries to forecast demand that has never been measured; under-structured because the order is treated as a purchase rather than as an experiment. A first order is a test. Its job is to produce sell-through data, and everything about how it is built should serve that.
Size it for learning, not for a forecast
The temptation is to order to a sales projection. The projection, at this stage, is a guess dressed as a plan. An order sized to it becomes an inventory problem the moment the guess is wrong, and first guesses about new markets are usually wrong somewhere.
The right size is defined by two limits: large enough that each line generates real sell-through data — enough to see what moves, where and at what price — and small enough that being wrong on a line has no serious consequence. That range is narrower than most distributors expect, and it is almost always smaller than the projection.
Anchor and breadth
A mixed range works best with two kinds of line playing two roles.
The anchor is our own production: string-and-tag tea bags and blends, dried fruit crisps, private-label packing, natural soap, rose water, essential oils and botanical extracts. On these we set the specification and hold the capacity ourselves, so a reorder is a quantity and a date. They make the order reliable.
The breadth is sourced lines: honey, tahini and confectionery, spices, hazelnuts and pistachios, olive oil and table olives, tomato and pepper paste, pulses and beverage powders. On these we work with verified producers and do not own the plants behind them; their constraints — harvest cycle, export quota, processing campaign — travel with them. They make the range interesting, and they should be sized knowing that a reorder may depend on a season rather than a warehouse.
Building a first order that is all breadth and no anchor is how distributors end up with a fascinating range they cannot reliably restock.
Label and language, decided per line
Three approaches are available, and mixing them in one order is normal. Own-brand packing under the distributor's label. Our packaging with a local-language adaptation. Our packaging as it stands. Each carries a different lead time and a different regulatory checklist in the destination market — allergen wording, nutrition format, mandatory particulars vary by category and country.
What causes delay is not the mix. It is deferring the decision. A line whose label approach is settled at the brief stage ships on schedule; a line whose approach is still open in the final week does not.
A document pack per line
Every line ships with batch-level analysis and export paperwork, and the destination's particular requirements are identified at the start. On sourced lines the underlying data originates with the producer and is passed through with the source identified.
A distributor building a compliance file in a new market needs that organised per line, not per shipment — because a retailer's technical team will ask about one product, not about a container. The pack for the honey and the pack for the tea are different documents answering different questions, and they should arrive that way.
What makes the second order routine
The test of a well-built first order is what it leaves behind: a written specification for every line, approved artwork, a documentation template, agreed packaging and a delivery rhythm. With those in place, the second order is a quantity and a date. If reordering requires repeating the whole process — re-sampling, re-approving, re-documenting — the first order was structured as a purchase when it should have been structured as a foundation.
TeraVella works with a new distributor from the market they intend to build. We propose an anchor of own-production lines and a breadth of sourced lines sized for learning, settle label and language per line before artwork, assemble a document pack per line, and say plainly which lines we produce and which we source before the range is written — so the order is planned on facts rather than on a range list. Volumes and prices are confirmed at quotation.
