Is your marketing plan optimized for successful brand development in the United States?
Suppliers are tired of B2B trade websites. Downright exhausted, and we don’t blame you.
Everywhere you look on the Internet, there seems to be a new B2B site. Since the rise of Alibaba.com, the list has become excessive.
As a supplier it’s overwhelming.
It’s overwhelming to be bombarded by so many aggressive salesmen for these marketplaces. Day after day you are called, emailed, and visited at the office, a serious distraction to work responsibilities.
Once you have registered for more than one site, it’s overwhelming to manage all of these profiles. How you keep your company information and product catalog up-to-date across multiple sites is a wonder to us.
And what percentage of buyer inquiries are a complete waste of time? Overseas sales managers, sales engineers, and executives have enough difficulties growing the company during challenging global economic times. Now add in the never ending process of filtering inquiries all while trying to remain professional lest you mistake a legitimate prospective trading partner for a waste of your time.
What is a Destination Site?
Destination sites are single websites (or a family of websites) that aggregate supply from multiple vendors. All traditional B2B sites are destination sites. Destination sites with great reputation among buyers are excellent channels to develop your business. There are, however, several issues with destination sites.
Problems with destination sites.
The biggest problem with destination websites is the fact that the buyer must make a conscious decision and effort to visit the site. Further, the buyer must then find your profile. If your supplier profile is not prioritized with search rankings, or emailed to visitors based on prior search and inquiry behavior, then visitors will most likely not end up discovering your supplier profile.
Most destination sites for international trade are not selective. There is an abundance of suppliers in each particular product category. The website operator is not making an effort to generate sales for your company, so much as they are playing a numbers game to generate the most revenue from supplier memberships in the aggregate.
This leads us to our final point; if the destination site has a bad reputation amongst international buyers, your company is guilty by association. Yes, that’s right. Many buy-side professionals, especially those who are sourcing experts, will not do business with suppliers listed on destination sites with poor reputations - at least not directly. If they do business with suppliers listed on these sites, chances are, the fact that you are listed on this site played little to no role in their decision making process.
What is a Dynamic Platform?
Dynamic trade platforms are single websites that are connected to multiple, targeted sales channels. Dynamic platforms offer suppliers the ability to target relevant buyers (consumers and businesses) across a mix of sales channels. To our knowledge there is only one dynamic platform for foreign suppliers selling into the United States, HDTS.
Benefits of dynamic platforms.
Manage your product catalog from one centralized location. Your product listings on our mix of sales channels is automatically updated.
Gain targeted access to a powerful mix of relevant sales channels. These channels include eCommerce marketplaces, branded loyalty programs of Fortune 500 corporations, flash deal sites, and resellers - online storefronts, retailers, and distributors.
This gives you the ultimate control over your downstream supply chain. Don’t want your brand associated with a certain channel? No problem. Want to prevent price erosion - selling below your minimum advertised pricing policy? Dynamic platforms have your back.
Since dynamic platforms extend all the way to the end consumer, they must also integrate with fulfillment solutions to ensure orders placed through various sales channels are fulfilled quickly and accurately. Just imagine the end customer’s feeling towards your brand when they receive their order - from inventory managed in the United States - within 2 days (ground shipping), with a personalized message thanking them for their business, promoting your brand, and incentivizing repeat business.
Finally, because dynamic platforms play an instrumental role in end customer experience through various channel partners, they must make sure that only the best suppliers can participate on their platform. This means, if selected, your company will not be buried beneath a sea of competitors.
If you’re looking to build your brand successfully in the United States - in a cost and time effective manner with ultimate control - it’s time you add a dynamic platform to your marketing plan.
Contact HDTS at [email protected] to get started.
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