Store positioning is the starting point of business. Before positioning a store, a detailed market research is required. After the store positioning is completed, it is necessary to collect information based on the store positioning and complete the basic information preparation for the store entry.
Before officially operating a cross-border station store, merchants need to understand the basic conditions of the international market, industry, and platform as the basis for identifying market opportunities, selecting market segments, and further positioning stores.
① International market environment research.
Enterprises conduct international business and import and export transactions of goods. Just as the army must first analyze the terrain and understand the combat environment, enterprises must first understand the business market environment so that they know themselves and the enemy and can fight a hundred battles without danger. The main contents of the enterprise’s research on the international market environment are:
●International economic environment: including economic structure, economic development level, economic development prospects, employment, income distribution, etc.
●International political and legal environment: including important economic policies of the government structure and the government’s incentive policies for trade. Restrictive measures, especially to understand the laws and regulations on foreign trade, such as tariffs, quotas, domestic taxes, foreign exchange restrictions, health quarantine, safety regulations, etc.
●International cultural environment: including the language used, education level, religion, customs, values, etc. Others include population, transportation, geography, etc.
②International market commodity situation research.
In order to enter the international market or import products from the international market, enterprises need to understand the international commodity market in addition to the foreign market environment, which mainly includes the following aspects.
●International market commodity supply: including the channels and sources of commodity supply, foreign manufacturers, production capacity, quantity and inventory, etc.
●International market commodity demand: including the variety, quantity, quality requirements of the international market for commodity demand, etc.
●International market commodity price: including the price of international market commodities, the relationship between price and supply and demand changes, etc.
③International marketing situation research.
International marketing situation research is a research on the international marketing mix. In addition to the commodities and prices mentioned above, it should generally include the following items.
Commodity sales channels: including the establishment of sales networks, the operating capabilities of wholesalers and retailers, operating profits, consumers’ impressions of them, after-sales services, etc.
●Advertising: including consumer purchase motivations, advertising content, advertising time, methods, effects, etc.
●Competition analysis: including competitor product quality, price, policy, advertising, distribution routes, market share, etc.
④Research on foreign customers.
Generally speaking, the research on foreign customers mainly includes the following contents.
●Customer political situation: mainly understand the customer’s political background, relationship with the political circle, the party the company’s head joins and the political attitude towards our country.
●Customer credit situation: including the capital and reputation of the customer. Capital refers to the registered capital, actual capital, accumulation fund, other property and assets and liabilities of the enterprise. Reputation refers to the business style of the enterprise.
●Customer business scope: mainly refers to the commodities and varieties operated by the customer’s company.
●Customer company and business: refers to whether the customer’s company is an intermediary, a user, a specialist, or a concurrent operator, etc.
●Customer business capabilities: refers to the customer’s business activity capabilities, financing capabilities, trade relations, business methods, and sales channels, etc.