How To Create An Export Plan?

What is the value of an Export Plan? 

The key to have a successful export business is having a written strategic export plan. A solid exporting business plan helps you to identify your product, conduct market research on the countries of interest, pricing of your product in your target market, and determine a strategy for finding buyers. 

What are the elements you need in your export plan?

Product 

• What is the demand of my product in the global marketplace?
• What changes can be made to adapt my product for export markets?
• What licence/certificates do I need to export? 
• What changes do I need on product packaging or labeling?

Pricing Considerations

• What is the cost to get my product into the target market (including freight, duties, taxes and other costs)?
• Estimate the shipping costs, what is my pricing strategy?
• Do I need to protect my intellectual property? (Click here to know more about intellectual property for your export business)

Promotion

• Should I build my online presence such as a website for marketing purposes?       
• Should I sell on an eCommerce platform?
• What kinds of social media should I use to build awareness?
• How to attend a trade show where international buyers are present?

Experience

• Where my inquiries come from previously?
• Which product lines are on the market trend right now?
• When is the trend of sales (seasonal)?
• Who are the main competitors in the market?
• What are the lessons learned from past export experiences?

Management and Personnel

• Who will be responsible for the export department’s organization and staff?
• What organizational structure is required to ensure export sales procedures are efficient?
• Who will follow through after the planning has been done? 

Production Capacity

• How is the present capacity being used?
• What minimum-order quantity is required?
• What is required to design and package products specifically for export?

Financial Capacity

• What amount of capital can be committed to export production and marketing?
• What level of operating costs can be supported by the export department?
• By what date must an export effort pay for itself?
• Do you qualify for any type of export financing?

Tips for your export plan

1. Keep your export plan simple! 
2. Be flexible! Compare objectives with actual results, do not hesitate to add additional information.
3. If you are using a third party eCommerce platform (for example. Alibaba.com, Amazon, Shopify etc) you can directly get some data from the platform for your target market & industry keywords.

What's Next?

Claim a FREE digital export audit report from us today! At PanPages TRINITY, we assist businesses to transform from offline to online, we also provide end-to-end export solutions to help businesses to grow and expand into the overseas market. 

If you’re interested to know more, schedule an appointment with us now. Click here