Cross-border trade has become one of the main priorities for entrepreneurs willing to grow, and nowadays international logistics operations are getting more simple even for small business owners. We have analyzed the most important cross-border logistics trends of 2022 to help you get ready for straightforward shipping.
Warehouses and Consolidation Programs
The previous years’ experience has shown that the delivery waiting time of customers tends to gradually shorten. Buyers are getting less likely to shop items from the sellers who take too long to ship their goods to the final destination.
Consequently, timely delivery has become one of the principal goals of cross-border logistics, and it makes retail businesses look for new ways of compressing the transit time. Luckily, the tendency of active warehousing considerably simplifies the whole process.
Now, when a lot of warehouses have been built in countries-trade partners of the US, you can ship different amounts of items to warehouses and safely store them for some time. Thus, the ordered things can be later shipped directly from the warehouse without waiting for you to bring everything from the starting point.
Why is it reasonable to ship to overseas warehouses?
- You’ll optimize the delivery time. Instead of going back and forth every time you need to ship the ordered items, you can deliver them to a warehouse and store them according to all your needs. Besides, you’ll avoid regular paperwork collecting that is usually required for international shipments. Shorter delivery time leads to enhancing customers’ satisfaction and making them buy from you again.
- You’ll avoid the problem of understocking. Understocking can be really harmful to your cross-border trade, especially during peak shipping seasons. That is why it’s way safer to store certain amounts of goods in a warehouse so that you can perfectly meet the customers’ demand. Moreover, using a warehouse allows you to practice demand forecasting to see what types of products should be primarily located in storage space.
- You’ll reduce the shipping costs. Apparently, you’ll spend more money on covering the full shipping route every time you get orders. Moving your goods to international warehouses gives you an opportunity to effectively save on logistics operations.
- You’ll make your supply chain greener. Warehousing is one of the numerous means of reducing traffic congestion and lowering the emissions level. The fewer transport units are used for delivery, the better the state of the environment gets.
Is it profitable to deliver the load to warehouses?
Storing items in warehouses requires certain costs. Warehousing is multicomponent and besides actual goods storage, it involves maintaining items’ security, regular quantity, and quality checks, adjusting storing conditions according to your product specifics, and others.
Often, big warehousing spaces offer a bunch of accessory services such as loading/unloading, additional protection, etc. However, warehouse facilities are getting more affordable by the year so that businesses of all scales could keep their goods in overseas depositories.
With the rapid growth of cross-border trade and eCommerce, international warehouses are trying to make their services reasonably priced for everyone.
Can warehouses store all types of products?
Modern warehouses are designed to accommodate different types of products, from furniture pieces to perishable goods. Items of a big size will be placed in protected areas so that they don’t contact other stored units. If you are going to ship items that belong to the group of CPG or require a special temperature regime, you’ll probably have to pick a warehouse with a temperature regulation system. This will allow keeping your products fresh for a certain time without losing their chemical properties.
Consolidation programs
Consolidation programs represent another possibility to make your cross-border delivery cost-efficient. When applying for a consolidation shipping program, you can unite with other retail business owners to deliver all the goods as a single full truckload shipment. Consolidated delivery is especially relevant for the sellers who have a high frequency of smaller shipments. In terms of this program, cargo from several suppliers is primarily stored in a consolidated warehouse from which it gets loaded into the truck and departs for its final destination.
Using Marketing Tools
Besides traditional marketing tools like running a website for your business and manifesting your product through advertising, there are a few options that seem extremely relevant in terms of cross-border logistics. It may not be obvious at first, but translating your website interface to customers’ native language can be a determinant factor to set you apart from your competitors. Numerous surveys have proved that the absolute majority of online buyers are more prone to purchase items switching to their preferred language. So, don’t hesitate to apply this lifehack in your business management, and you’ll experience sales growth and an increase in shipping requests.
Since the regular buyer’s screentime is growing too, it is reasonable to make your products appear more frequently on various online platforms. To keep up with current purchase dynamics, you may consider advertising your goods through social media. It does not only modernize your business strategy but also allows you to reach different age groups of buyers by selling on different social networks.
Another tool that often gets overlooked by retailers, is delving into feedback analytics. Checking the feedback your customers left on your website or other platforms has much to deal with tracing the demand. Feedbacks contain valuable data on the most and the least popular items, the level of customers’ satisfaction as well as their willingness to return for a purchase. Make sure you’ve got available feedback buttons on your page and don’t stress out over negative comments – they can help you in sales forecasting.
Online Shipping Platforms
Online shipping platforms do not probably sound new to you, however, they still take their time to become widely used in cross-border logistics. While shipping within the US is often performed via online shipping tools, business owners don’t feel too comfortable about booking an international shipment in a few clicks. In fact, there is nothing to worry about, since the majority of carriers who offer cross-border delivery are actively using online shipping platforms. Moreover, you can easily take a quick look into the shipping rates and available dates. Online shipping platforms like GoShip can facilitate your cross-border supply chain even more.