Skin Care Export Links and Resources

April 24, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment 

Government Agencies

World Trade Centers

Chambers of Commerce

Embassies

Guides and Schedules

Foreign Exchange Rates

Trade Shows

Other Business Resources

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Exporting Introduction for Skin Care Companies

April 24, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment 

What Is Exporting In The U.S.?

The simple answer is that exporting is the sale of goods, services and technology from a U.S. based company to a foreign country. This is often referred to as the most popular form of international trade.

The majority of U.S. based companies and individuals do not export. There are several reasons for this. These reasons include lack of knowledge, finances, education and resources to set up an international distribution of their products. Unfortunately these companies and individuals are missing out on a substantial revenue stream by not taking the time to investigate the potential of exporting. If they did a minimum amount of research they would discover a world of opportunities.  Companies without international sales representatives could easily form relationships with other companies and individuals to represent their products in foreign countries. They would manage all aspects of the trade. This includes prospecting for new clients, marketing, logistics and financing.

The United States Government offers many resources to help companies and individuals to export. The trade deficit is at an all time high so the government has an incentive to create exporting opportunities. The end result will be a lower deficit, more U.S. jobs and less inflation.

Basic Steps And Approaches to Exporting Skin Care Products

There are some basic steps that must be followed and questions answered before entering the export process.  These steps are very similar regardless of whether you manufacture a product or will represent a product. Once these questions are answered, you can begin to formulate your export plan. The following are some questions that must be addressed:

  • Will your product or service fill the same need in foreign markets as it does domestically?
  • Will it be competitive in foreign markets?
  • What types of distribution are you seeking – direct or indirect?
  • How will you market your products and services in foreign markets?
  • How will you finance the export transactions?
  • How will the products or services reach their destinations?
  • Will you have adequate resources to support it from the U.S.?

To help answer these questions, one must understand the different types of approaches related to exporting. The method by which you choose to export your products and services will have an effect on your strategies. Exporting strategy comes down to the amount of involvement you want in the process. Do you want to export directly or indirectly?

Direct Exporting – This approach means that the exporter is handling all aspects of the trade process. This includes marketing, planning, setting up foreign distribution, sales and collections. Direct exporting is often utilized by a manufacturer of a product or service. It takes a substantial commitment from management to allocate adequate resources to achieve positive results. However, this method will result in maximum profits and long-term growth when executed properly.

Indirect Exporting – This approach involves a third party company or individual who handles the majority of the trade process. This includes finding foreign buyers for distribution, some marketing aspects and limited collections. An example of a third party company who exports indirectly is an export management company or EMC. Quite often an EMC will already have local contacts in foreign countries and specialize in their cultures and understand their economies. A company who hires an EMC could benefit from learning about foreign competitors and new market opportunities.

Exporting Essentials for Skin Care Companies

As a general rule, exporting takes more time to set up and the sales cycle is longer. Your sales philosophy should be that of long-term instead of short-term results. American business culture demands that companies achieve quarterly profits first and then focus on annual profits. Direct exporters will often have to train themselves to focus on the long haul and don’t let short term challenges get in their way.

There may be some obstacles that arise in the beginning. Some potential obstacles are communications, new competition, language barriers and foreign currency fluctuation. However, all of these obstacles can and must be overcome in order to achieve exporting success.

There are a few aspects to take into consideration at this point. This is where the export essentials come into play. The three main export essentials involve sound market research, providing competitive products and accounting for adequate customer support.

Market Research -

How will you know if your product or service will be successful in a foreign market? How you enter and develop a foreign market is very important. We often use the “look before you leap” analogy in this case.

As we stated above, one must realize that success probably won’t come quickly. You must consider this a long-term investment in time and resources. That being said, your market research strategy should reflect such a time frame.

To begin, there are a lot of excellent government resources available to any company or individual. These resources can provide valuable insight into the feasibility of exporting your product into a foreign market. These types of resources include industry reports, country reports and in some cases, direct access to potential buyers. These resources will be detailed later in this manual.

There are a lot of differences between selling your products and services domestically and selling them internationally. There are many social, economic, political and cultural differences. One must factor these differences into their market strategy.

Let’s now discuss strategy and market research. Proper market research will allow you to identify potential marketing opportunities, prospective customers, and potential alliances within your industry. Market research will also allow you to determine the best possible foreign markets for your products, market trends, high growth countries, local market conditions and competition.

Where does the information come from that makes up a market research report? It can come from an EMC who has already established their presence in a specific foreign market. It can come from the government resources we alluded to above. It can also come from data collected directly from a foreign market through surveys and interviews.

It doesn’t matter how you obtain market research reports. The point to make is that you should do all your homework before entering a new foreign market. This will minimize your risks and increase the chances of success.

Competition –

The fact that your products and services are selling well in the U.S. doesn’t mean you could sell them in a foreign market. In some cases the opposite holds true. Sometimes a product and service doesn’t sell well in the U.S. but it will sell in a foreign market. The bottom-line is that your product and service won’t sell in a foreign market if it can’t compete with foreign buyers. In many cases you must exceed your competitors expectations in order to make a sale.

It’s easy to see how proper market research will become valuable here. You can concentrate your efforts specifically on the economic conditions that make up a competitive product.

There is a distinct advantage of having sold your products and services successfully in the U.S. If you were successful domestically, chances are you can be successful internationally. We refer to this as “market association.” This means that when attempting to enter a foreign market, you can associate the success of the domestic market to the potential success of a foreign market. You have a great track record. If you could do it here, you could do it there.

Of course you will have to adapt to the local market in terms of currency and pricing, payment terms and general standards. Through market research determine the market value of your products and price them accordingly. This will greatly help your efforts in providing a competitive product.

Customer Support  –

You have managed to sell your products or services to a foreign market. Now what do you do? Do you have a customer support system designed to assist your customers with any issues? Many foreign buyers require such a system prior to closing any business.

Customer support in its simplest form can be provided through the use of the telephone, fax and computer (email). This is a good starting point but it’s often not enough.

Depending on if you’re exporting directly or indirectly, you can design a customer service model to meet your customer’s expectations. If you are exporting directly you will need adequate inventory on hand to fill an order. If not, you will have to be able to produce the product in a timely manner. Your system should allow for mechanical defects. If there’s a defect, you can either fix or replace the item. Also, your customer service system should allow for flexible payment terms. You will most likely have to bare the costs of these terms. Your customer should know all aspects of your customer service policies from the beginning of your negotiations. They should be put in writing and be available at any time.

Export Resources for Skin Care Companies

As we alluded to earlier, there are a tremendous amount of resources and support available from various sources in the U.S. The majority of these resources come from government agencies from the federal, state and local level. The U.S. government has a substantial interest and incentive to assist with exporting. Exporting U.S. based products and services helps reduce the trade deficit, curtail inflation, create jobs and reduce inflation.

The following are some key resources that should be utilized for any beginner:

  • U.S. Department Of Commerce
  • National Trade Data Bank (NTDB)
  • World Trade Center
  • STAT-USA
  • Trade Information Center
  • Small Business Administration
  • International Trade Development Center
  • Chamber Of Commerce
  • U.S. Embassies
  • Foreign Banks
  • Trade Associations
  • Trade Journals
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Websites You Need For International Skin Care Markets

March 29, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment 

There are many basic sales principals that you use for your domestic market that also apply to international skin care markets. These principals can help you when planning for your international skin care business expansion.

Your skin care website is an important platform for your business communication. Ideally it is designed to communicate effectively with your market. It is designed to do something specific for your business in your domestic market.

So what happens when you want to open your skin care business up to other markets in other cultures?

Your communication will change.

But what about its platform…your website?

Internationalize Or Go International for skin care

How do you decide whether to internationalize your skin care website or to create an international website?

If you are currently just starting to target foreign markets, one of your first questions will be about your website. At least it should be. There are two very common scenarios:

* Many small companies assume the website they use for their domestic markets will work well with their English speaking international markets. They fail to realize their website may actually be sabotaging their international communication.
* Many companies also assume they do not need to adapt their online communication until they are actually ready for a website in a foreign language.

This means that very few companies actually ask themselves the real question:

* Do we need to internationalize our current website or do we need to create a separate website totally dedicated to our international market?

There are two main factors you need to look into before you are able to answer this question:

* Is your current website dependent on a culturally specific message? Is your website already in English?
* Are you almost ready to launch a localized website? That is, a website dedicated to one country?

Your answers to these two questions will influence your international website.

Too Culturally Specific

This can be a delicate decision. Your main website must continue to sell to your domestic market. There are some basic steps you can take to make your website more international-friendly. These basic steps rarely influence your communication with your domestic market. They rely on sound internet marketing practices.

The question is just how different are the cultures you want to market to internationally. Most people answer this based on gut feelings. These gut feelings often lead you astray.

The best way to look at this is to do a cultural behavioral comparison between your domestic market and the specific foreign markets you want to target.

Different cultures need to be reassured in different ways.

A cultural behavioral analysis will show you these different needs. There are a few web communication tools you use to respond to these needs. The idea is to see if the tools you need to use on your website to communicate better with your foreign markets actually deter your domestic market. Just how much will these changes affect your primary customer base. You have three solutions:

* You don’t really know where your foreign markets are and want to plan for the future – Internationalize your website minimally, evaluate your foreign markets and move onto localized websites as soon as you can.
* You want to actively promote your products and services to a broad international audience – create a website for international clients in English.
* Your website is not in English – you need to start with an international website in English.

Almost Ready For A Localized Skin Care Website

If you are almost ready for a localized website, you may only decide to implement some small changes to your current website and concentrate on creating your localized website.

Once you have a few localized websites or sufficient international response you will want to look into an international website, or a global gateway

Internationalization Is Always Good

When you go about internationalizing your domestic website, you learn to acquire some good practices for future international websites.

* You will see the value of consistency and clarity.
* You will learn discipline in embedding text in images.
* You will come to appreciate website templates.

In its basic format internationalization makes your skin care website better for all of your visitors, domestic and international alike.

You can go beyond this. There are different degrees to which you can adapt your current website. The degree to which you internationalize your website depends on your communication needs.

How different is the communication with your domestic market compared to your foreign market?

You need to study the behavioral differences between your primary domestic market and your foreign target markets. This is an exercise you should do when starting your international business development.

The process of looking at your website from different cultural viewpoints will highlight the areas you will need to adapt as your international business grows. You will get insights into your future needs.

Internationalization with cultural behavioral comparisons gives you a good idea of when you will need localized websites as you expand.

Internationalization of your website is an ongoing process. You can start with the basic steps good for all of your audiences, and slowing implement culturally specific web tools.

An International Skin Care Website

Sometimes it just makes sense to start with an international website. A website with a separate domain name and URL makes it easy to drive all international traffic through one online office. Here are some of the reasons you may want to start with an international website.

* You need a different sales message to your international visitors
* Your website is not in English to start with

Different Message

* If your domestic website uses a very specific localized vocabulary you will probably want to look at creating a separate website.
* If your sales pitch is also very localized, or your foreign visitors respond to different sales arguments.

English Is Still Universal

Companies with domestic websites that are not in English will often find it easier to start off with an international website. This has been the situation for some time and is unlikely to change in the near future.

Of course, there are instances where an English language website is not obligatory. If you already have sales in one particular foreign country it makes sense to start there.

Adjust Along The Way

Companies can be in many different situations. The main point to remember is:

* any communication with your international markets influences your website.

You will have to decide on the best online platform for your business requirements. Some companies have more options than others. This is the movement most companies look at:

* from a domestic website
* to an internationalized domestic website
* to an optional international website
* to one localized website
* to several localized websites
* to a global website – if you have an international website this could slowly become a global website once you start other localized websites.

Along this process you will learn more about marketing your skin care products  to your foreign markets. You will adjust your communication along the way. You will want your website to be a good platform for your communication and the changes you will need.

The sooner you become aware of good website practices for international businesses, the more time and money you will save your skin care company.

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Exporting and Importing Skin Care Products

February 20, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment 

Once a skin care company has established themselves in their domestic market most companies ask themselves if they should internationally distribute their product line.

Many aspects are to be considered when make the decision to sell internationally skin care products. These aspects are to be carefully reviewed before a decision is made.

It is very costly to enter a foreign market with a skin care line. The product should be localized meaning all the labels and marketing materials should be in the local language addressing the local culture and customs.

Also, the price points should be carefully reviewed and considered when setting them. Even though the demand might be great … is the local market capable of affording the skin care product line.

Language barriers can influence and affect how successful the entry into the foreign market is. Distribution and sale cycles with local distributors if successful has to be managed with proper communication.

Furthermore, the competition has to be carefully studied before making the decision to enter the market.

International distribution can be very lucrative, but make sure the market can bear your skin care products and avoid pitfalls.

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