You say that the Exporters Almanac will save us time and money as well as opening new channels and finding new potential partners? How does the site do this?
Taking each of these points in turn:
Saving Time: The Exporters Almanac provides a single point of reference for the vast majority of the information that you need to develop your export effort. You do not have to search the web for each and every single reference. – In fact, if the Exporters Almanac does not have the information you need, please contact us at info@exportersalmanac.com and we will do our best to find the information you are looking for.
Saving Money: This is done in a number of ways:
Ø You can reduce the amount of money spent on consultants.
Ø There are sites (e.g. for logistics) where companies will bid against each other for your business – ensuring that you get the best price.
Ø We list companies and services on the internet which offer low-cost solutions e.g. for translations.
Ø We list free online tools to support your eCommerce activities.
New Channels: There is extensive advice and support on how to develop eCommerce using a number of channels to both (a) directly sell and (b) promote your company and its products free of charge. In the section Market Search, ITC’s Export Potential Map identifies (a) products, markets and suppliers with untapped export potential and (b) opportunities for export diversification.
New Partners: There are two main ways to do this (a) in the section Market Search use ITC’s Trade Map to identify the countries of interest to you and your products and then access the list of importers\exporters of those products in those countries and (b) use the extensive list of industry directories that are listed both in Country profiles and Industry Profiles to find companies that fir your search criteria.
The site seems to be focused on SMEs and the B2B market. Is there any support for the B2C market?
Yes. If you go to the eCommerce section and read the eCommerce Guide and check out the B2C Markets Places and Online Networks, these provide support to the B2C sector. Further, under the “Services & Tools” sub-menu most of these are applicable to both the B2B and B2C sectors.
Why do you cover all 250 ISO Countries and Territories when some of these have very small populations or are in fact uninhabited?
The reason is the ISO 2 letter country code is used extensively in reference documentation (e.g. within bank account numbers, destination codes etc. etc.). We have therefore included all codes so that (hopefully) no errors can be made e.g. we have seen “BV” used by a bank thinking that this was the code for the British Virgin Islands – in fact it is for Bouvet Island situated in the South Atlantic populated only by penguins (sometimes). Therefore, we thought it was better to have all, rather than try to “censor” the content.