Here's a pattern we see constantly: a Korean brand gets its first international distributor offer, celebrates, signs, and twelve months later discovers that their product is sitting in a warehouse in Miami because the distributor couldn't sell it through.
The distributor was excited. The meetings were good. The contract looked fair. Everything went wrong anyway — because the fit was wrong from the start.
Ask three questions before you sign
1. What does their existing shelf look like?
Not their pitch deck. Their actual stores, today. Walk through a few. If their shelf is dominated by mass-market brands and your brand is mid-to-prestige, that's a mismatch — and it doesn't matter how enthusiastic they are. Their shoppers aren't your shoppers.
2. What's their sell-through rate on their top 3 K-beauty brands?
A distributor moving Korean skincare at 85% sell-through is a different operator than one moving it at 35%. The difference is whether they understand the category or just carry it. Ask them directly. If they dodge, that's your answer.
3. Who on their team owns your brand after signing?
The person you meet in negotiations is rarely the person running your account afterward. Ask to meet the category manager. Ask what their other brands say about them. Ask how many brands they manage — if it's more than 15, you're not getting attention.
The reality
Distributor fit is 80% of launch success. Product is 10%. Marketing is 10%. We've seen mediocre products succeed with the right distributor and exceptional products fail with the wrong one.
If you're about to sign a deal, slow down. The wrong yes is worse than no yes at all.