How a French Company Is Starting Business in Brazil’s Beauty Market: Exalto Client Case
Key Points
- Exalto, a French company selling human hair products to hairdressing schools and professional beauty brands, is entering the Brazilian market with Novatrade acting as its local sales force.
- Before the first commercial meeting, the team ran a full pricing analysis to ensure Exalto’s products could compete in the Brazilian professional beauty market.
- A 3-day commercial mission to São Paulo included participation in an industry event and B2B meetings with Wella and a national distributor.
- The partnership is in its early stages — this is what a structured market entry looks like before the first sales close.
Index
- The product and the market opportunity
- Why Brazil for a niche B2B product
- Pricing before prospecting
- The commercial mission: 3 days in São Paulo
- What this model means for foreign B2B companies
- Frequently Asked Questions
Introduction
When Exalto decided to start business in Brazil, they were not looking for a distributor. They were looking for someone who understood the market, could run the numbers, and go meet the right people on their behalf. That is exactly what happened.
Exalto is a French company that manufactures and sells human hair products mounted on training mannequin heads — the kind used by hairdressing schools, professional beauty brands, and stylists to practice cuts, color, and technique. It is a highly specialized B2B product with a clear target audience and no consumer retail angle.
Brazil has the second-largest professional beauty market in the world. The number of registered hairdressing establishments alone runs into the hundreds of thousands. For a company like Exalto, that is not a vague market opportunity — it is a concrete and identifiable buyer base.
Getting there, though, requires more than a product and a price list. This article documents how the entry process started and what it actually involves.
The product and the market opportunity
Exalto’s core offering is human hair mounted on mannequin heads for professional training. The target buyers in Brazil fall into three categories: hairdressing schools, professional beauty brands that use training materials for their educators, and independent distributors who supply the professional education segment.
This is not a product you find on a shelf. Sales happen through direct B2B relationships, trade events, and distributor agreements. The decision-maker is a purchasing manager at a school chain, a training director at a beauty brand, or a category buyer at a national distributor — not a retail buyer and not a consumer.
Brazil’s professional beauty sector has been growing consistently. The country hosts major international trade fairs in the segment, and its professional education infrastructure — particularly in cosmetology and hairdressing — is well-developed. For a European supplier entering this space, the Brazilian beauty market offers real volume. The challenge is reaching the right buyers, at the right price, through the right channels.
Why Brazil for a niche B2B product
The question foreign companies often ask is whether Brazil makes sense for a niche product with a narrow buyer pool. The answer depends on the size of that pool in absolute terms — and in Brazil, most professional niches are larger than they appear from outside.
Brazil has one of the highest concentrations of licensed beauty professionals in the world. According to the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae), the beauty sector is among the most active for small and micro-business registrations in the country. This translates directly into demand for professional training materials.
The segment Exalto serves — schools and brands that need quality training materials — is not dominated by local manufacturers. There is room for a European supplier with a differentiated product, provided they can price it correctly and reach the right contacts. Both conditions require local knowledge.
That is where Novatrade’s role begins: not as an importer or a logistics operator, but as the commercial extension of Exalto inside Brazil.
Pricing before prospecting
One of the first steps in the partnership was a detailed pricing analysis for the Brazilian market. This is a step that many foreign companies skip — and it tends to create problems later.
Importing physical goods into Brazil involves import duties, taxes, logistics costs, and the margins of any intermediary in the chain. The final price the buyer sees can be significantly higher than the export price. If that final price exceeds what the market will bear, no amount of good contacts will close a deal.
Mapping buyers: hairdressing schools, beauty brands, distributors in Brazil.
Full landed cost calculation including import duties, taxes, logistics, and margin structure.
Industry event attendance + B2B meetings with Wella and a national distributor.
Ongoing — converting meetings into commercial agreements.
Target: close initial orders and establish recurring supply terms.
For Exalto, the pricing work confirmed that the product can be competitive in the Brazilian market — but only with the right commercial structure. That meant understanding which buyer profile absorbs the most friction in the import chain, and building the commercial approach around that.
Foreign companies that skip this step often discover the pricing problem after the first round of meetings, when buyers say the product is interesting but too expensive. At that point, renegotiating is harder than it would have been if the numbers had been stress-tested before the first call.
The commercial mission: 3 days in São Paulo
Exalto’s leadership came to Brazil for three days. The agenda was compact and specific: one industry event and two direct B2B meetings — one with Wella, one of the leading professional beauty brands operating in Brazil, and one with a national distributor active in the professional education segment.
This kind of commercial mission serves a purpose that no amount of remote communication replaces. Buyers in the Brazilian professional market respond differently to a supplier who has made the trip. It signals commitment. It also gives the foreign company’s team a direct read on how their product lands in conversation — which objections come up, which aspects generate interest, what the buyer’s decision process looks like.
Novatrade organized and facilitated the mission: identifying the right contacts, preparing the commercial approach, and accompanying the Exalto team throughout. The three days were not exploratory. They were the result of prior groundwork.
The meetings are ongoing. No commercial agreement has been signed yet — this is documented as an active partnership at an early stage, not a closed deal. But the foundation is built: the right contacts have been made, the product has been presented at the right level, and the pipeline is in motion.
For companies considering a similar approach, a market entry strategy with a local sales force is one of the ways Novatrade operates for clients who are not yet ready to open a local entity but need commercial presence on the ground.
What this model means for foreign B2B companies
The Exalto case illustrates something that applies to many European companies evaluating Brazil: the entry process is not a single event. It is a sequence of steps, each of which depends on the previous one being done correctly.
Skipping the pricing analysis and going straight to commercial meetings is a common mistake. So is organising meetings without prior qualification of who the right buyer actually is. And going to Brazil without a local partner who can facilitate introductions, translate commercial culture, and follow up in Portuguese adds friction to every step.
The model Novatrade runs for Exalto — acting as the local sales force while the French team retains full control of the product and strategy — is particularly suited to companies in B2B niches where the buyer base is specific, the sales cycle is long, and the volume per transaction is meaningful. It avoids the overhead of opening a subsidiary before there is validated demand, while still building the commercial relationships that a subsidiary would need anyway.
If your company is evaluating a similar structure, the starting point is always the same: understanding whether the product can be priced competitively in Brazil, and identifying who the real buyers are. From there, the commercial work can begin. Our market entry team can run that initial assessment before any commercial commitment is made.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Novatrade act as a sales force in Brazil without us opening a local entity?
Yes. Novatrade can represent a foreign company commercially in Brazil — managing prospecting, B2B meetings, and pipeline development — without requiring the foreign company to incorporate locally. This is a common structure for companies in the early validation phase of market entry.
Why is a pricing analysis necessary before starting commercial meetings?
Importing into Brazil involves multiple cost layers: import duties, federal and state taxes, freight, handling, and intermediary margins. A product that is competitively priced in Europe may land at a price point that buyers in Brazil cannot absorb. The pricing analysis identifies this before meetings are scheduled, so the commercial approach is built on realistic numbers.
What is a commercial mission and how is it structured?
A commercial mission is a structured visit to Brazil, typically 2–5 days, organized around specific B2B objectives — meetings with qualified prospects, distributor introductions, or event participation. Novatrade handles the logistical and commercial preparation: contact identification, agenda, briefing, and facilitation during the visit.
How long does it typically take to start business in Brazil?
There is no fixed timeline. The speed depends on the complexity of the product, the regulatory requirements, and the length of the sales cycle in the target sector. For B2B products with no regulatory barriers, a first commercial contact can happen within weeks of engaging a local partner. Converting that contact into a signed agreement typically takes several months, particularly in sectors with formal procurement processes.
Is the Brazilian professional beauty market accessible to European suppliers?
Yes, though the path to market depends on the product category. Cosmetics and personal care products require ANVISA registration, which adds time and cost. Training equipment and materials used by professionals — such as mannequin heads — have a different regulatory profile and can move through the import process more straightforwardly. In both cases, local commercial presence and the right distributor relationships are the primary factors that determine how quickly a foreign supplier can gain traction.
Entering Brazil takes preparation, not just a plane ticket
The Exalto partnership is still in its early stages. What it documents so far is the groundwork: a pricing structure validated for the Brazilian market, a commercial mission completed with the right contacts, and an active pipeline under development.
For foreign B2B companies, that groundwork is the part most often underestimated. It is also the part that determines whether the first meetings lead anywhere.
If you are evaluating how to start business in Brazil for a B2B product or service, talk to our market entry team. The first step is always understanding whether your product can compete at a price that works for Brazilian buyers — and we can help you answer that before you book any flights.
