How can you make exporting easier thanks to market analysis?
Exporting is indeed a complex process, involving many activities, all equally important. Market analysis can speed up the work of exporting companies.
What are the advantages of market analysis? Find it out in this article.
Exporting: the major challenges
Those who work with foreign markets know that there are many challenges.
Every day you have to deal with a wide range of stakeholders with different expectations, demands and objectives.
The main activities concern:
- The identification of the most suitable target markets for your product/service.
- The selection of companies (distributors, suppliers, customers, logistical partners, etc.) needed to export.
- The knowledge of customs regulations and legal requirements for operating in a foreign country.
- The monitoring of the results, to evaluate corrective actions.
All this requires a comprehensive strategy, which is why the development of an export plan cannot be improvised.
In fact, its success requires a systematic review of what has been done. In the light of this, it is good to break away from a one-off sales approach: only through a constant activity it’s possible to consolidate one’s presence abroad.
There are many questions to be answered:
- Is my product suitable for consumers in the foreign country? Is there a sufficient level of demand?
- Who are the strategic partners for my business? How should I communicate with them?
- Do I know the legal requirements of the country to which I want to export? How do I prepare the necessary documentation?
- How and when should I assess the results?
All questions are important, but the basis for a successful export operation is one: the analysis of the target market.
Analysing the market: why you should do it if your company exports
A company wishing to export must carefully study target markets in order to:
- Know whether there is an actual demand for the product/service, so that the export activity can be sustainable (and profitable).
- Understand how the demand is evolving over time.
- Identify the foreign companies to achieve strategic goals: distributors, customers, but potential suppliers of services and goods needed to carry out the activity.
Once it has been established that the product/service offered by your company is really demanded by consumers (in the case of a B2C company) or by other companies (if you operate in the B2B market), it will be necessary to activate the correct channels to reach them, using for example distributors or agents.
In addition, on-site partners will have to be identified to carry out essential operations such as transport.
Market analysis for exports: the traditional approach
Traditionally, the identification of all these figures is done through tools such as online research and visits to trade fairs.
However, this traditional approach to market analysis for exports has its limitations.
- Trade fairs entail high organization time and costs, and not all companies in line with our plan may be present.
- Online searches generate scattered results, and there is no guarantee of finding companies with the right characteristics. In addition, it is necessary to check hundreds of websites manually.
Let us clarify with an example.
An electrical company specialising in coaxial cables is looking for new wholesale distributors in Eastern Europe. Once the ideal country has been selected, the company is interested in getting to know wholesalers specialising in its product category.
The company might choose to wait until the next trade fair to meet new distributors, after having travelled and spent on setting up the exhibition stand.
Alternatively, digital technologies can be exploited to get results quickly. How?
Market analysis for exporting: the digital approach
Explore is the platform to automatically identify companies in line with your export needs.
How does it work?
Thanks to Artificial Intelligence algorithms, it allows you to map the online presence of businesses included in a worldwide database containing data on over 400 million companies, in 196 countries.
In this way, it is possible to automate the lengthy and costly analysis process we described, identifying only those companies with specific characteristics.
Returning to our example, the electrotechnical company can thus find wholesalers specialised in its type of cables in just a few minutes, immediately obtaining a list of leads to develop its presence abroad.
In this way, exporting becomes easier, and also accessible to SMEs that too often consider it beyond their reach.
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