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China Will Continue to Be a Major Contributor to Global Trade Growth in 2022

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Archives, Global Trade Daily, International Trade

China Will Continue to Be a Major Contributor to Global Trade Growth in 2022

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Despite the twin impacts of the pandemic and the US-China trade war, economic indicators suggest that China will continue to grow rapidly through the next year and will be one of the biggest contributors to global trade growth in 2022. 

Indeed, in some ways, the current trajectory of China’s economic growth and trade surplus – both highly positive – is a return to normal. Though many feared that the pandemic and the US trade war would cause long-term, structural damage to China’s trading and economic infrastructure, it appears that this was not the case. In fact, changes to the way supply chains work may mean that China is now in a stronger position than it was at the beginning of the pandemic – a luxury that other countries can only dream of.

In this article, we’ll look at the most recent economic indications from China, explain what they mean for global trade, and see how analysts and governments in the West are responding to these signs.

Positive indications

First, let’s look at the state of the Chinese economy. Here, the news is very positive. On almost any measure that is commonly used as a proxy for consumer demand – the Purchasing Managers’ Indexes (PMI), electricity consumption, bank lending, etc. – the Chinese economy is booming. 

Though many analysts expected that consumer demand would be significantly down in 2021, in actuality, China is experiencing strong demand in both domestic and foreign markets. The Chinese government continues to invest heavily in making China a tech superpower, and so far, they are mostly succeeding. 

There are some complexities hidden behind this headline, though. One is that China has seen heavy food price inflation over the past few months driven, in part, by the US-China trade war. For many households in the country, food makes up a sizable proportion of the household budget. 

On the other hand, it seems that the pandemic has not affected the Chinese economy to anywhere near the degree that some experts expected. The transition to remote working for office workers, for instance, went more smoothly than had been predicted and occurred without a net loss to the economy. This was the case in some other countries too – remote workers contributed $1.2 trillion to the US economy alone last year, a 22% increase from 2019 – but it was especially pronounced in China.

 

Increased foreign trade

Since both domestic and foreign demand for Chinese goods remains high, we are likely to see China’s share of global trade increase over the next year. This is also a continuation of the pre-pandemic trend, which saw gradually increasing volumes of high-value finished goods being exported from China.

When it comes to global trade volumes, the picture is not completely positive, however. Though demand for Chinese goods remains high, the pandemic has imposed new restrictions and complexities on exporters. This is likely to slightly reduce trading volumes over the next year. That said, China is already a titan when it comes to global trade, and a slight reduction in growth is not likely to affect that. 

Liang Ming of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation predicted that the country’s total foreign trade will be near five and a half trillion by the end of 2021. In fact, since that prediction was made, market conditions have only grown more positive for Chinese exporters. 

Many manufacturers in the country have used enforced lockdown periods to update and improve their logistics and supply chains for the post-Covid world, and many of their trading partners have come out of the pandemic more quickly than expected. 

Calls for decoupling

All this is great news for China, and specifically for Chinese exporters. It might not be such good news, however, for the countries that buy goods from China. This includes the US and the majority of European nations, all of whom are heavy consumers of Chinese-made goods. Many analysts are alarmed at the growing dominance of China in global trade, pointing out that this could be dangerous for the world’s privacy and safety.

The numbers are certainly impressive. Official data released from the Chinese government in July 2021 showed that for the first half of the year the country’s foreign trade surged to 18.07 trillion yuan, equal to roughly $2.79 trillion USD. This was despite many industries being affected by the US trade war and despite calls in the US for the country to transition away from its dependence on China.

There are other concerns about granting China a larger portion of the global economy. Specifically, concerns about the privacy of data collected by Chinese companies remain high, as do concerns that Chinese banks are being used to launder money on behalf of Mexican and Colombian drug cartels.

All of these concerns have led some think tanks to call for a “decoupling” from the Chinese economy. This would involve selected trade embargos in order to promote domestic production of consumer items in Western economies and to give these economies time to make back some of the gap that is opening in global trade.

Conclusion

Ultimately, the trajectory that China now finds itself on – with a growing economy and a rapidly increasing trade surplus – has been the norm for much of the last two decades. And if a global pandemic and a US-directed trade war has been unable to stop the growth of the Chinese share of global trade, it’s unlikely that anything will. 

automate
Archives, Global Trade Daily, Imports/Exports

AUTOMATE TO SLASH TARIFF MISCLASSIFICATIONS, PENALTIES AND DELAYS

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A Fortune 500 chemicals company experienced surges in its tariff classification requests and predicted future volume would be even greater. Without support, the risk of misclassifying items was extremely high. Procuring an automated global trade system helped alleviate the strain on resources and mitigate the risk of delays and penalties. It also allowed the company to cut outsourced services, which yielded meaningful P&L savings and helped the organization manage its growth projections efficiently.

It is a timely case study as enterprises that engage in international trade continue to experience increases in tariff classification requests as their import and export shipments surge. With global merchandise volume forecast to grow 7.5% this year and 4.1% in 20221, organizations still using manual processes for product classifications — researching and applying HTS codes — may be misclassifying a variety of their products, including anything from direct materials to back-office supplies.

Misclassifications not only cost organizations shipping delays — sometimes from two to 14 days — increasing the likelihood of an audit, but they also lead to steep penalties. In fact, some companies have had more than 80% of their classifications incorrect for products and have incurred U.S. Customs and Border Protection fines of up to four times the lawful duties, taxes and fees.2

However, there is an overlooked solution. Today’s global trade management systems come equipped with automation and machine learning capabilities to streamline classification requests. They cut classification errors and the cycle time, improve a team’s productivity, and help prevent fines and border delays.

Here are the keys to success for organizations using trade systems to overhaul their tariff classification process:

1. Automate the consistent, repetitive classification requests that take up more than 60% of a resource’s time. Organizations can immediately alleviate the workload for classifiers by leveraging automation and machine learning for repetitive product classifications that have slight deviations. Those items can take hours of a resource’s time, leaving little to no bandwidth for other categories that may require more research. As the system learns more about the minor deviations in product types, it can provide accuracy of close to > 95%. Taking manual processes out of the equation helps guarantee supply assurance to an organization’s customer base while mitigating penalties from errors.

2. Eliminate third parties or outsourced contracts involved in classification overflow assistance. Implementing automation for tariff classifications allows an organization to remove outside brokerage services, equating to an immediate P&L savings impact. Some organizations have seen upwards of 10% savings captured by eliminating these obligations. That, in turn, helps positively impact the overall trade governance budget. Not only are the short-term effects instant, but for the long-term, global trade systems can help identify discounts for various classification codes based on trade agreements between importing and exporting countries. These discounts usually go overlooked by internal resources because of how busy they are with other tasks.

3. Use machine learning to help realize a cycle-time reduction for classification requests. Enterprises should leverage global trade services to automate customs rulings updates, ensuring compliance is current for all import/export nations. That leads to a reduction in the time spent by internal resources on researching the data each time a regulatory change occurs. Also, organizations should integrate databases with their global trade management systems to classify past and new unique classifications. Machine learning can leverage past classification mistakes for the future, but for new items, linking information flows from databases can help automate requests as they appear for the first time.

Organizations experiencing growth in their imports and exports must pay attention to global trade systems with automation and machine learning now more than ever to ensure business continuity and future scalability. While digitizing classification processes results in crucial P&L and cost savings, it’s also critical to mitigating the risk of future border delays and steep fines.

___________________________________________________________________

Alex Hayes is a consulting manager at GEP, a leading provider of procurement and supply chain solutions to Fortune 500 companies.

1. https://ihsmarkit.com/research-analysis/global-trade-outlook-for-2021.html#:~:text=We%20forecast%20the%20volume%20of,2021%20and%204.1%25%20in%202022

2. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2011-title19/pdf/USCODE-2011-title19-chap4-subtitleIII-partV-sec1592.pdf

furniture
Archives, Global Trade Daily, News

Vietnam Drives Out China from the American Wooden Kitchen Furniture Market

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IndexBox has just published a new report: ‘U.S. – Wooden Furniture Of A Kind Used In The Kitchen – Market Analysis, Forecast, Size, Trends and Insights’. Here is a summary of the report’s key findings.

In 2020, American imports of wooden furniture for kitchens soared by +22% y-o-y to 52M units or $1.9B in value terms. Supplies from Vietnam and Malaysia offset the dramatic drop in imports from China after the tariffs on Chinese products increased. Among other countries, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand and Mexico saw the highest spikes in wooden kitchen furniture exports to the U.S. The average wooden kitchen furniture import price dropped by -18.1% against the previous year. 

American Imports of Wooden Kitchen Furniture by Country

In 2020, the amount of wooden furniture for kitchens imported into the U.S. surged to 52M units, increasing by 22% compared with 2019. In value terms, wooden kitchen furniture imports totaled $1.9B in 2020 (IndexBox estimates).

In 2020, Vietnam drove out China from the leading position in the American imports and became the largest exporter of wood kitchen furniture to the U.S. Over the last year, the supplies from Vietnam rose from $224M to $487M. Malaysia occupied second place in the list of top suppliers to America, boosting its exports to the U.S. from $148M in 2019 to $415M in 2020. Indonesia recorded the highest spike in kitchen furniture exports to the U.S. In 2020, Indonesia ramped up the supplies from $13M to $103M. Among other countries, Taiwan, Thailand and Mexico featured the most prominent export growths of kitchen furniture to the U.S. The purchases from China fall dramatically from $831M to $132M owing to raising tariffs on Chinese imports.

Vietnam (16M units), Malaysia (11M units) and Canada (6.1M units) were the main suppliers of wooden kitchen furniture imports to the U.S., with a combined 64% share of total imports. China, Indonesia, Mexico, Italy, Taiwan and Thailand lagged somewhat behind, together comprising a further 27%.

In value terms, the largest wooden kitchen furniture suppliers to the U.S. were Vietnam ($487M), Malaysia ($415M) and Canada ($301M), together comprising 62% of total imports. China, Italy, Indonesia, Mexico, Thailand and Taiwan lagged somewhat behind, together comprising a further 28%.

The average wooden kitchen furniture import price stood at $37 per unit in 2020, with a decrease of -18.1% against the previous year. Prices varied noticeably by the country of origin; the country with the highest price was Italy, while the price for Taiwan was amongst the lowest.

Source: IndexBox Platform

industry
3pls, Archives, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily

How to Lead When the Industry is Volatile

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In 2011, Prince William was marrying Kate, investors’ eyes were on Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, and global trade experts were predicting a volatile 2012.

A decade later, Prince Harry just welcomed his first child with Meghan, Greece is still in the EU, and global trade experts are predicting a volatile 2022. 

As the saying goes, don’t wait for the storm to pass — just learn to dance in the rain. For the global trade industry, this translates into: get used to the volatility.

To build a truly sustainable supply chain in an era where the only stable prediction is instability, company leadership must embrace flexibility. Creating an agile organizational structure that’s ready to adapt at the drop of a hat (or the obstruction of a barge) ought to be considered a critical task for any workforce in the industry. Because — and this is the last quote I’ll reference, I promise — as General Electric’s Chief Innovation Officer Sue Siegel said in a 2018 keynote address, “The pace of change will never be as slow as it is today.”

The experts, however, got the cause of the volatility wrong back in 2011 — they thought it would be inflation. Who would have predicted the COVID-19 pandemic, or the Suez Canal disaster? 

Company leaders who pay attention to the growing data on worker productivity and how they rate their satisfaction on their work/life balance will continue to embrace work-from-home culture (now referred to as WFH by those in the know), instead of dismissing it as a temporarily allowable measure during the pandemic.

Within my own company, until last year we enforced a strict policy of keeping computers at the office — we’d decided the risk of damage during transit and at home was just too great. The pandemic forced us to reverse that policy in an instant, on a Thursday in March, without time to prepare. But we haven’t had to replace any equipment yet; it turns out adults can be trusted to take care of their valuables — and to roll with the punches. When I reflect on the resiliency our employees have demonstrated over the past year, I’m amazed.

In fact, I think the first subheading in the economy section of the 2020 history books will be “WFH.” Employees appreciate the flexibility, and those who benefit from mental and physical health-related workplace accommodations are thriving under the ability to create their own schedule and work environment. 

Meanwhile, COOs are shaking their heads wondering why we’ve been paying for all this office real estate over the years.

Leadership coaches have long preached that innovation is prevented when you’re comfortable with structure, and 2020 forced every member of the team to learn this lesson head-on.

Another takeaway for company leadership that the talking heads have been leaving out of their morning segments is that providing total visibility to clients and customers is the first way to ensure viability during a disaster. Yes, you may get an earful at the time when delivering bad news — but they’ll appreciate it in the long run (and trust you more for it) because a sugar-coated status report doesn’t allow managers to make the best decisions possible for their projects. 

Time for one more?

Those whose leadership style leans toward positivity were more likely to see their staff weather the 2020 storm. In a crisis, employees want to grab onto hope — it’s your duty to serve as their cheerleader. At the same time, make sure you have an outlet to vent that frustration away from work, lest you compress yourself into a powder keg that creates an entirely different problem down the line. 

________________________________________________________________

Richard J. Bolte, Jr. was born in Philadelphia in 1957 and joined BDP International in 1973. Throughout his 47-year career with the company, he has held positions covering a broad range of the firm’s operations in global logistics and transportation. His formative experience at BDP centered on ocean exports and supply chain management, with particular emphasis on company operations. Rich was Vice President of the company’s Northeast Region before taking the position of Chief Operating Officer. In 1996 he was named President of BDP International.
 

In 2006, Rich Bolte was named BDP’s Chief Executive Officer; and subsequently, in 2013 the Board of Directors appointed Rich as BDP’s Chairman & CEO. He now serves as the organization’s Chairman to the Board. Rich championed BDP’s global expansion, and the company now employs nearly 5,000 employees in 135 offices throughout nearly 40 countries. He can be reached at rich.bolte@bdpint.com.

fitness
Archives, EU Trade, Global Trade Daily

Fitness Equipment Imports in the EU Grow Despite the Pandemic

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IndexBox has just published a new report: ‘EU – Gym and Fitness Equipment – Market Analysis, Forecast, Size, Trends and Insights’. Here is a summary of the report’s key findings.

A spike in the fitness equipment imports in the EU has been recorded during the pandemic year, driven by growing demand from retail consumers while fitness clubs’ activity was limited. In 2020, the import value rose by +9.6% y-o-y to $3.4B. Germany, France and the Netherlands remain the largest importers of gym and fitness equipment in the EU.

Gym and Fitness Equipment Imports in the EU

In 2020, the amount of gym and fitness equipment imported in the EU surged to 762K tonnes, picking up by 25% against the previous year’s figure. In value terms, gym and fitness equipment imports totaled $3.4B (IndexBox estimates), rising by +9.6% y-o-y in 2020. While the demand from fitness clubs was limited due to lockdowns, it was offset by soaring retail sales of equipment for home use.

The largest gym and fitness equipment importing markets in the EU were Germany ($659M), the Netherlands ($496M) and France ($467M), with a combined 47% share of total imports. These countries were followed by Spain, Poland, Italy, Sweden, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Hungary, which together accounted for a further 44%.

In 2020, the gym and fitness equipment import price in the EU amounted to $4,493 per tonne, reducing by -12.2% against the previous year. There were significant differences in the average prices amongst the major importing countries. In 2020, the country with the highest price was Austria ($8,510 per tonne), while the Czech Republic ($3,554 per tonne) was amongst the lowest. In 2020, the most notable rate of growth in terms of prices was attained by Denmark, while the other leaders experienced more modest paces of growth.

Source: IndexBox Platform

OKR
Archives, Global Trade Daily, International Trade

Four Ways the Supply Chain Can Utilize OKRs to Achieve Digitalization

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The fourth Industrial revolution is driving the creation of a more connected ecosystem within a variety of different functional areas. Organizations are re-shaping their supply chain strategies to move toward entirely integrated boundaries and to become increasingly transparent in their business practices which leads to supply chain management (SCM) 4.0. Digitizing the supply chain is an SCM 4.0 movement towards a completely integrated sequence of planning and production solutions that work in tandem to create a more visible supply stream across each touch point of the entire value chain.

According to the MHI annual report, 80 percent of supply and manufacturing industry leaders believe supply chain digitization will be the norm in five years while 16 percent think that day is already here. This trend isn’t new, but what is catching the attention is the introduction of OKRs to manage supply chain strategies towards digitalization.

OKRs – Objectives and Key Results – have been used by some of the world’s leading organizations for years now. The aim behind setting up OKRs is to manage strategies, increase employee-company vision alignment, foster transparency and encourage a focused and streamlined approach towards goal attainment. OKRs in supply chains help organizations align strategy and enable business capabilities to accelerate growth.

Road to Supply Chain Digitalization

Supply chain leaders who achieve supply chain digital transformation successfully integrate well-established business capabilities with emerging digital innovation. By first developing foundational supply chain capabilities and then incorporating proven business and technology innovations, leading supply chains are able to move beyond exploration to integration and optimization.

End-to-end transparency is the ultimate goal for a number of supply chain operators, as the crucial component to achieving significant efficiency gains. In a system with end-to-end transparency, every member of every business process along the supply chain network has access to all information leading to improved visibility and providing full control along the chain.

To achieve these ambitious goals and blend digital capabilities with supply chain visibility, Gartner mapped out a three-step plan for supply chain digital transformation as below:

-Embed supply chain in the digital ecosystem

-Implement autonomous supply chain

-Synchronize with digital business

However, a recent McKinsey Global Survey reports that just 14 percent of the respondents state that their supply chain digital transformation efforts have made sustained performance improvements. This is an incredibly low number, which alarms there are still challenges to either implement or sustain the digital transformation.

Digitalization Obstacles

The new global research survey went on to investigate the main obstacles organizations have so far encountered on the digital transformation journey.

-44 percent of executives reported a general lack of awareness throughout the internal ranks of their own organization

-39 percent also noted a lack of the required skills across their workforce

-50 percent of respondents said that their supply chain partners lacked the necessary awareness

-42 percent said their supply chain partners lacked the required skills

–70 percent of all digital transformation initiatives do not reach their goals (Tabrizi et al., 2019)

These obstacles appear to slow down progress outside the four walls of the organization (e.g. suppliers, partners) as well. OKRs aim to address the strategy and non-technology-related digitization challenges to seek integration and collaboration and gain efficient performance management.

OKRs in Supply Chain Digital Transformation

The executive leadership has already started looking at OKRs as the option to sail through most of the strategic digitization challenges. Here comes the major opportunity for OKR driven by supply chain digitalization that includes managing the digital transformation strategy, focussed vision, transformation alignment, and providing end-to-end organization visibility for the digital transformation.

Strategy Execution

Supply chain digitalization is not just about technology; it should be guided by a broader strategy and a mindset of change. This is related to applying the right strategy to match digitalization and focal firms, supply chain actors (such as multi-tier suppliers, multi-tier customers) based on different approaches at different development stages. A retailer, for example, might define its supply-chain digitalization strategy with respect to its aims for enhancing customer experiences: “Provide customers with the seamless digital shopping experience.” In such a case, OKR acts as the strategy management framework to define and manage such overarching company strategies to handhold the transformation execution.

Focused Vision

The vision for supply chain digitalization provides the organization with reference points for the second step in transformation planning (aka strategy execution): a comprehensive assessment of how the objectives need to be met. To make the assessment simpler, organizations need to define the performance measurement goals (also known as key results), which complete the company’s vision for its transformed supply chain.

Setting performance goals requires a company to gauge its current performance and then determine achievable improvements. A company that aims to reduce lost sales by a specific amount, for example, would need corresponding supply-chain performance goals—improving the speed and reliability of shipments to customers. Such goals can be defined as key results in OKRs and can be measured and tracked in terms of agility, service, capital and cost measurements.

Transformation Alignment

Digital transformation is not a simple IT-enabled organizational transformation; it is about the alignment of different supply chain touchpoints with organizational strategic objectives, structures, core values; and structuring and implementing supply chain processes reengineering. Ultimately, the supply-chain vision should be aligned with the company’s strategic goals. While the need for such alignment has always existed, what’s new is that both the strategic goals and the vision can be connected and interlinked to measure the execution through OKRs.

End-to-End Organization Visibility

A 2016 report by IDC predicted that 70 percent of siloed digital transformation initiatives would ultimately fail. An effective transformation depends on a transparent, forward-looking concept for the future supply chain. Visibility is extremely important to these organizations as it can play a major role and help guide organizations through transformation challenges.

OKRs create clarity and provide transparency in supply chain digitalization goals throughout the organization and supply a real-time progress report via frequent check-ins and updates. This key result heartbeat is important to ensure that corrections can be made in real-time to accommodate the ever-increasing speed of business. This means thinking about the outlook for the company amid the pressures and trends that influence its competitive situation, as well as the changing expectations of its customers.

How Do You Ensure OKRs Are Adopted and Stuck To?

It actually comes down to the solution that an organization adopts. Digitalizing the supply chain starts with digitizing the supply chain transactions including the OKRs. If OKRs are not recorded, they are set and forgotten about. If they are simply entered on excel, it would be a colossal admin task to maintain. By recording the OKRs on a digital platform like Profit.co where everyone can view whenever they need to, targets and performance stay in front of mind and the information can be made at the fingertips.

Conclusion

Organizations reap greater benefits when they develop a comprehensive vision for the future of their supply chains, carry out a disciplined assessment of existing performance, and draw up a long-term transformation road map. Business leaders find OKRs to be an effective mechanism for establishing strategies, defining goals, setting priorities, and ensuring that the activities are connected to those digital transformation goals. They should also recognize that supply-chain transformations must extend to both technology and operations. Organizations that employ these approaches amalgamated with OKRs for supply-chain digital transformation stand a better chance of capturing the full value that digital technology can provide.

___________________________________________________________

Bastin Gerald is the CEO and founder of Profit.co, an intuitive cloud-based SaaS platform, integrating OKRs and task management plus 300 other data-driven metrics to help companies successfully implement the model and reach new heights. Profit.co helps companies focus, align and engage teams for optimal productivity and company success. To learn more, visit https://www.profit.co/.

References

https://www.solvoyo.com/digital-transformation-journey-in-supply-chain-planning/

https://www.altamirahrm.com/en/blog/okrs-for-business-growth

https://www.gartner.com/en/supply-chain/insights/supply-chain-digital-transformation

https://www.workpath.com/magazine/how-to-write-good-okrs

https://www.eazystock.com/blog/supply-chain-digitalization-future-scm/

https://www.mhi.org/publications/report

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/digital-transformation-raising-supply-chain-performance-to-new-levels

omnichannel
Archives, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily

The Importance of an Omnichannel Approach for Great Customer Experience

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The omnichannel approach to customer experience has become an essential investment among companies focused on maintaining a strong brand reputation. It means providing a unified experience through all channels and platforms that consumers use to interact with the brands they use. In other words, it’s become more important than ever to communicate the same messages across all channels in which customers choose to engage. Done successfully, an effective omnichannel platform will deliver a resolution-centered, personalized experience to every customer – no matter how they connect with an organization.  

Seventy-three percent of consumers point to customer service as an important factor in their purchasing decisions, making the customer experience the number one driver of brand loyalty.1 While brand loyalty is an important factor in the success of a company, it is shockingly fragile. In fact, one in three consumers say they will walk away from a brand they love after just one bad experience. Most of the 32% of customers willing to abandon a brand after a bad experience are the Gen Z and Millennial generations, who assign lofty significance to how a brand treats and values them.1  

More companies should expand to the omnichannel customer service model. It has shifted from being appreciated to being largely expected by these market-driving generations of consumers. It promotes consistent brand messaging and enables brands to protect their customer relationships across multiple platforms. Right-place, right-time engagement can be the difference between whether a customer chooses your brand or a competitor – and whether they stick with your brand for their next purchase decision.

The Risks of Neglecting Social Media Customer Experience  

The average social media user has roughly 865 followers across all platforms.2 No matter how strong a company’s other means of communication – phone support, chat operations, self-service – a lack of social media engagement exposes your brand to the possibilities of neglecting customer questions and feedback, resulting in a bad reputation when it comes to customer service. All it takes is one consumer posting a bad complaint on their social media platforms for their 865 followers to see. Furthermore, 60% of customers who complain on social media expect an initial brand response within 15 minutes. Brands lacking a social media customer response strategy, or brands with understaffed digital engagement teams, have no way of redeeming social media brand perception to consumers in a time when there is a mass customer pivot to social channel utilization for customer care. 

Neglecting social media can also lead to inconsistent brand experiences that break customer loyalty, lose moment-of-purchase sales opportunities, and alienate buyers in the research and observation stages. By using omnichannel communication, a brand can avoid these mistakes and keep the company’s reputation in the good graces of loyal consumers.  

Social Experience Management Solution Sets 

Having consistent customer service across all channels can be greatly beneficial to a growing company, so it’s important to know how to do it right. Social experience management can be broken down into three solution categories: social care, reputation management and content/community moderation. Utilizing these three categories and correctly implementing omnichannel approaches is the best way a company can provide the customer service and experiences that consumers expect to receive from their favorite brands.  

Social care is the monitoring of all social media channels. The key is knowing when to listen and when to respond. It’s also essential to align all social media channels in messaging and brand voice. To do this well requires response teams ready to reply to all customer questions, complaints, and praise. Having sales conversion and cart value strategies for consumers are shopping through various media outlets is also important, as is detailed engagement and KPI reporting on engagement and brand performance 

A second specialized area of social experience management is reputation management, where companies complete all online reputation assessments and social media campaign activation. Screening for inappropriate or malicious content aimed at your brand can help companies get ahead of an issue before it escalates into a problem. It’s important to brainstorm brand, product, e-commerce, and retail-based strategies that focus on review response, as well as addressing questions at the point of digital sale. These efforts can determine whether a customer decides to buy your product or return to your location.  

Another key component to reputation management relates to incorporating the right social media customer engagement campaigns. A great campaign will align with the efforts of the marketing teams and agencies to maximize campaign reach and amplify the goals of current social promotions and objectives. Social media customer engagement campaigns can be fundamental to showing what values your brand has above and beyond basic digital customer care, which is another reason why it’s so important to incorporate into your brand’s strategy.  

Finally, content and community moderation is another integral part of ensuring the company’s presence is being represented accurately across all platforms and that community forums are being cultivated in a way that promotes brand loyalists and new advocates alike. Moderating uploaded user/brand content (video, text and images), flagged content review as well as promoting community guideline enforcement are of high importance to grow digital communities while still following brand standards. Brands that pull all of these digital skills together to monitor all social channels, brand sites, and third-party sites can see the benefits when measuring customer experience through social engagements can set themselves apart from competitive brands. 

As the omnichannel approach continues to rule customer experience strategies, having the best tools to measure interactions and implement company KPIs is of the utmost importance to ensuring a successful brand experience while boosting consumer loyalty.  

_________________________________________________________________

Roger Huff is Vice President, Digital Engagement Solutions at ResultsCX. His experience in the business process outsourcing industry spans 13 years, with 10 years of experience concentrated on social media customer experience management. Roger leads solution development and sales of social media and digital CX solutions that span social CX, digital reputation management, and content & community moderation services. He has worked extensively with digital, e-commerce, insurance, healthcare, and retail companies to deliver specialized solutions that elevate brand reputations.  

Sources:
1: https://www.pwc.com/us/en/advisory-services/publications/consumer-intelligence-series/pwc-consumer-intelligence-series-customer-experience.pd
2 : https://www.customercaremc.com/insights/national-customer-rage-study/2020-national-customer-rage-study/  

lead times CMA
Archives, Global Logistics, Global Shippers 101, Global Trade Daily

7 Ways to Reduce Supply Chain Lead Times

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No one enjoys waiting forever for their items to arrive. However, this is not simply an issue of annoyance for companies and stores which rely on their inventory to turn a profit. So, how can you beat this problem, reduce the time it takes for your inventory to arrive, and be free to engage your customers without worries? To answer this question, we have compiled a guide. We offer you 7 ways to reduce supply chain lead times for your perusal.

1. Use local suppliers

One of the principal causes of long supply chain lead times is the sheer distance your merchandise needs to travel. So, to combat this issue, one of the simplest ways is to find local suppliers who can provide you with what you need. Now, it is only natural that companies look for the best balance between quality and cost. But you must take into account the cost of transporting your merchandise over long distances. Even cheap maritime shipping has drawbacks, so don’t be afraid to buy slightly more expensive local products.

2. Have backup suppliers available

It is all well and good to trust and rely on suppliers you have worked with for years. However, it is helpful to know who could replace missing shipments if your regular suppliers are facing some issues. Take the chance when you do not need to find a replacement in a hurry to plan ahead and maybe even draft contracts ensuring that you can count on them when you need to. This way, your business will always have something to fall back on. You do not want to face a situation where you cannot follow through with already placed orders and leave your customers waiting for weeks.

3. Always have extra inventory

It might seem like a risk to have more merchandise than you think you will need. Your product might not sell and end up just sitting in some warehouse. However, we must consider the alternative: If you are facing any issue with your chain of supply, you could be looking at considerably increased chain lead times. In such a case, you would actually be losing money. Of course, we are not saying you should stock up on absolutely everything. Taking on an extra amount of unpopular articles is just asking for trouble. Analyze the current trends and check which of your merchandise is currently popular.

4. Communicate with your suppliers

This one is simple. If there are any problems with your suppliers, you want to know immediately. Some suppliers might not take the initiative to inform you if there is an issue on their end. This could lead to sudden increases in supply chain lead times for no apparent reason. To combat this, always make sure to stay in touch with your suppliers. Prompt them to inform you of accidents. Check in advance if they can handle an increase in demand, and always let them know if you anticipate a decrease in the demand for their product. This way, you can encourage friendly cooperation and ensure you are kept informed of any sudden developments.

5. Hire a good logistics manager

No one can do everything by themselves, and good employees are always valuable. That is why you should try your best to find and hire a logistics manager who excels at their job. They can help you smooth out wrinkles such as delivery routes, the best places for your warehouses, and streamline contact with suppliers. They might even be able to help you cut down on unnecessary expenses. These things will directly be reflected in the efficiency of your company’s work as a whole, thereby reducing chain lead times and allowing you to turn a better profit.

6. Anticipate customer demand

You might not feel confident enough to make predictions about future customer demand. This is quite normal. So, you will need to hire a professional to analyze the consumer data you have access to. This way, you can preemptively place certain orders so that, even if you do face unavoidable delays, you can stay ahead and be ready to offer your merchandise on the market. You might hesitate when faced with the additional expenses of hiring a good analyst, but if things work out, you stand to increase your profits considerably. Staying ahead of the market and leading trends is always profitable.

7. Change your shipping methods

If you notice consistent problems with your supply chain lead times, yet can’t find any issues with your suppliers, then you should consider looking into the shipping methods you are currently using. Favoring slower but cheaper methods when starting out is okay. However, once your business expands and there is more interest in your product, you might find such a system flagging. So, consider switching to a more modern solution. This can also help increase the safety of your shipments. Alternatively, you can try to place your orders more frequently in smaller batches instead of delaying them to order in bulk.

Conclusion

This marks the end of our guide on 7 ways to reduce supply chain lead times. We hope you have found it helpful and informative. Just remember: always have alternatives for your suppliers, communicate with them properly, look to the future to anticipate customer demands, and do not hesitate to modernize your shipping methods.

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John Davis has worked for Heart Moving, NYC for the last five years, and has extensive knowledge of moving and transporting goods. He also works as a freelance blogger, and loves sharing his knowledge on the subjects he is familiar with. He always feels inspired by the thought that his advice can help someone else.

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Archives, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily, News

eCommerce Success: How to Boost Store Sales Ethically

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The surrounding reality dictates specific rules of the game. The world is changing, and very rapidly. Therefore, the ability to adapt to changes is a vital prerequisite for business development. In e-commerce, change happens very quickly. How to stay afloat in this business and achieve success ethically?

Register your business

First and foremost, if you want to be successful with your eCommerce business sales, you need to make sure that everything is okay regarding documents. The easiest way to do so is by registering your business online so you avoid all the paperwork and the hired company does these daunting tasks for you. No matter where you are in the world, you can seek help from Hong Kong company formation services to register your company in Hong Kong.

Plan ad campaigns

Data Management Platform (DMP) is a platform created for advertising marketing purposes as a tool for identifying the target audience. You get not just raw data on loyal customers’ discount cards but a full-fledged synchronization mechanism with the target audience. Using the entered card number, open letter, and other user actions in the network, you can track preferred purchases and generate data sets for conducting advertising campaigns for certain products.

Implement an omnichannel approach

It should be equally convenient for buyers to choose, pay and receive goods by all available means and immediately. You need to understand that omnichannel technologies are not created for the convenience of sellers but for the convenience of customers.

Today buyers choose, compare prices, closely study reviews and delivery conditions on the Internet, and only then go to the store to look, touch, and try on a thing. Or buy it for a promotion announced on the site. It often happens that sellers in stores find out about online promotions and sales from the customers themselves. The product declared on the site does not appear in a particular store, or its prices differ from the online offer.

The introduction of an omnichannel approach uses all possible means of communication with the buyer and greatly facilitates marketing research and sales tactics. For example, free Wi-Fi in a store will make life easier for customers and collect data on the movement of customers around the hall and optimize the display of goods.

Collaborating with a digital marketing agency

No doubt, we need well-functioning internal processes from the receipt of an order to its delivery to the buyer and receipt of money for the goods. You can build this process yourself or collaborate with professional companies such as Tactica, New Jersey SEO Company.

Working with reviews on social networks

Most shopping networking sites and online stores are integrated with social media. Even if one out of a thousand responses is helpful to improve service performance or fix deficiencies, it will pay off. To work in social networks, you need to develop special regulations with KPIs for feedback, response, and monitoring. Try to respond to user comments within 20 minutes.

The uniqueness of each client

Personalization of Big Data-based suggestions depends only on your ingenuity. You can greet the user by name on the site’s main page and in mailings or offer him products depending on geolocation and weather conditions. The main thing is to personalize a specific purchase as much as possible. For this, predictive analytics systems are already being created, which, based on user behavior (purchases, search queries, and surfing the web), determine what they may need in the foreseeable future. Alternatively, you can turn to an SEO consultant who can help you expand your online presence and increase your sales.

Channels of connection

Service automation is not only about having a contact center, where the client will be promptly answered not by a boring robot but by a friendly consultant, but also by many other channels. The call center should be integrated with social networks and messengers, and the voice communication between operators and customers should be made more informal. The operator’s on-call question at the beginning of the conversation, how he can help, rather irritates the client. After all, this is why he calls to help him. However, communication in online chatbots and answering machines, which receive requests from users around the clock, is irreplaceable. A full-fledged customer service based on CRM systems will allow you to automate processes as much as possible and competently respond to requests in a short time.

Conclusion

To ethically increase e-commerce sales, try to implement multichannel communications and modern sales resource management systems—leverage modern Data Management Platform (DMP) software platforms. Integrate retail networks and online stores with social networks. Personalize your offers as much as possible with Big Data. And, of course, automate CRM-based customer service using chatbots, social networks, and instant messengers.

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Archives, Global Trade Daily, Special Reports

Why Trust with Customers will Reshape Tomorrow’s Industry Leaders

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Consumers have a larger voice today, powered by a plethora of information sources and endless opportunities to voice their opinion on social media. As a result, modern businesses and their marketing arms realize they need more customer-centric approaches that foster more direct relationships through engagement and more personalized experiences. 

In order to accomplish this, businesses need a more direct pathway and visibility into each and every individual customer’s behaviors, needs, and preferences. Organizations have traditionally relied on third-party data to reach their customers, but changing regulations and the realization that this type of data cannot provide reliable insight into personalized preferences has left businesses looking for new and better options. 

Businesses are now building strategies to collect this personalized data through direct interactions with their customers, known as zero-party data or explicit first-party data. As a result, this process will result in greater trust between the customer and business and will foster more longer-lasting, mutually beneficial relationships. 

Customers are willing to share personalized data with companies they trust 

For many years, businesses preferred the use of third-party data because they thought it was a more expedient and efficient way to reach consumers. However, consumers have demonstrated their willingness to provide personal information with businesses they perceive as trustworthy. This means that trust has become a leading business strategy for today’s modern businesses. 

Companies that establish a distinct line of trust with their customers will be able to collect highly personalized, unique information on each customer, and will build their own datasets for each customer – rendering their outdated third-party datasets useless or at best secondary to zero-party data. These modern businesses will quickly realize they have a clear competitive advantage within the markets they serve. 

Companies have been their own worst enemy 

There are a handful of reasons why this shift is taking place. As a result of hundreds of data breaches that have plagued businesses of every size, customers have become weary of the way in which companies use and mishandle their personal data. This has led to stricter regulations, such as the EU’s GDPR, California’s CCPA and many more, that impact how businesses are allowed to use their customers’ data. Many leading companies are now taking measures to change the way in which customer data can be collected, utilized and shared. 

This has resulted in drastic changes in data privacy, a byproduct of which includes, companies building more personalized relationships with their customers in the name of trust. 

What is zero-party data and how can companies collect this info 

Especially driven by today’s e-commerce and mobile device landscape, the most valuable data a modern marketer or business can have comes directly from customers themselves. Personalized information shared directly from a customer to an organization is referred to as “Zero-Party” data. 

Zero-party data is highly personalized insight a customer intentionally, directly, and proactively provides to a brand because they have built a level of trust with that company. This personalized insight may include preferences, insights, profile data or consents, and how the individual wants the business to engage them. 

What’s in it for the customer? 

Why are customers willing to share such personal and private details with companies? Because it results in a better, more personalized experience with a brand. Think of a beauty products maker that can send emails, texts, and promotions that speak directly to the unique needs of a customer who has specific allergic sensitivities to his or her skin. These types of modern marketing promotions illustrate to the customer that the company is truly listening to their needs, and in return that customer will show a higher level of engagement to the marketing messages. Like a snowball rolling downhill, once this company can demonstrate they are truly listening to this customer’s unique needs, the customer builds trust with the company and is willing to continue sharing even more of their data over time. 

Customers become more satisfied because the brand is doing a much better job of meeting their needs, and they reward the brand with loyalty, advocacy, and bigger purchases. Each time there is a successful data-value exchange between the business and customer, it positively reinforces the relationship and incrementally strengthens customer trust which increases their propensity to share more data. And the cycle continues. 

These modern brands recognize the powerful voice customers now have today. They also recognize the quickly changing regulatory environment and are rapidly adapting to the new ways of customer engagement through trust and personalization. These modern brands will take a leadership position – no matter the size of their company – and shape the way entire omnichannel-driven industries operate in the future. 

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As PossibleNOW’s Senior Vice President of Strategy and Consulting, Jeff provides thought leadership related to the deployment and utilization of zero-party data (customer consents, preferences, and insights). He handles executive management responsibilities for pre-sales, strategic consulting, and implementation services. He helps customers identify pain points, craft solutions unique to their needs, and provides guidance across the implementation and assessment processes.  

Jeff has a broad and extensive background in domestic and international business environments across myriad industries. He has held executive positions with FreebeePay, Agentek, SupportSoft, and CoreNetworks and management positions with Mosaix, Sequent Computer and IBM, helping companies drive business growth, develop high-performance sales and service organizations and implement process best practices.