The Coronavirus pandemic has had a big impact on all businesses, small, medium and large, as well as having an effect on a range of industries and sectors.
Global travel restrictions and constraints have affected and constricted the economy, making trading difficult, it has also meant that a number of businesses have had to shelve their plans of taking their company overseas. As things start to get moving again and we are slowly but surely leaving times of uncertainty behind us, trading is slowly starting to resume and it’s time to start planning and reviewing international trade and sales.
The current times mean that we are going into a fragile and unknown economic landscape that is suffering from the aftermath of the global Coronavirus pandemic. Any plans for trading globally need to reflect these changes in the economy, take a look at these pointers to help you get back on track.
- Review the current international markets, consider the areas where you were previously operating and see if there is still demand for your products. Whether you’re new to exporting or not, it’s worthwhile seeing which markets have recovered more quickly than others.
- Keep in touch with your overseas customers distributors and fulfilment centres, even if they aren’t buying from you, by staying in contact, it will; ensure that they come back and buy from you once the economy starts to improve.
- As well as keeping in touch with your existing customers, you should try and reach out to new ones and start building relationships with prospective customers.
- Use this time wisely and get up to speed with any new legislation and exporting rules, if there’s any new barriers or restrictions coming into place, you will know before it happens and this will stop the process from slowing your business down.
- Research what markets in which countries are the most likely to recover quickly, this will allow you to start targeting your products to new customers in these new areas.
- Once you have found which markets are most likely to come back to the quickest, you can adjust your marketing strategy and send messages that are appropriate to this target audience. This may also involve new marketing material, data and websites.
- Review your pricing structure and ensure that your distributor agreements are up to date.
- Review your product offering and if certain products are higher in demand than others, you can change your focus and start to push these out into the market.
- Change and develop your skills where possible, you could learn a new language to assist new customers in the new markets and countries that you have identified.
- Consider and review your resources and capabilities, balancing orders against productivity will always be difficult so it’s important that you make sure that you have enough resources in order to meet a big order. If you have made staff redundant or have them on furlough due to COVID-19 we advise that you make sure you put a plan in place in order to manage your workforce.
