If you’re looking to expand your business into a new and emerging markets, chances are you’ve started doing some research into how it might be best to do so. While embarking on a new business journey is not only exciting and full of potential, it can fail if not done without the right knowledge and experience behind you. During your research you might have seen long lists detailing the top tips to remember when breaking into an emerging market, but what is absolutely essential? The material online often does not emphasize the key essentials, such as partnering with local experts to successfully break into an emerging market. As this is one of the most essential tips to be aware of, we detail why it’s essential to do so, and how best to go about it.
Why is it so important to partner with local experts to achieve success?
First of all, what is an emerging market? An emerging market can be seen as any country with a market that has not yet been fully tapped into. Therefore, if you’re expanding your business into a foreign country, building partnerships with relevant local businesses can have a number of advantages. The first being that trying to break into an emerging market without the knowledge and expertise of the local business and consumer market can be difficult to overcome on your own. A local partner will be able to advise you on where to find everything; from a reliable courier service, consumer preferences and how best to communicate with them. Collaboration will help you establish the basics for your business in a new country.
Not only can collaboration help you establish the basics, but it can help your business thrive. If you choose the right partner, you can create a relationship that benefits both you and your partner simultaneously. While a native business can help you enter the market smoothly with a degree of local expertise and awareness, you can help your partner grow their business through the upskill of employees, and the increase of resources if the venture goes well. This will eventually feed into the country’s growing economic system and bolster local business.
How do you go about choosing the right partner?
Find a local business that fits or compliments your brand and business needs. This means that they either produce and sell similar products, operate in a similar fashion or offer technology you need to facilitate your entrance into the market. For example, if you’ve set up your website to accept customers from a new region, you might not necessarily have the technological tools available to accept their payments. If you partner with a reputable payment gateway that operates in that region, it will give you cross-border payment solutions in the relevant currency and offer local payment methods. PayU operates in numerous emerging markets, allowing online businesses to easily offer local payment processing for their customers.
Secondly, look at how much interest and following the local business has in the market; are they widely followed, bought from and talked about? If your business is seen to be collaborating with a highly reputable local brand, your business has the potential to gain traction in the market.
Once you’ve figured out who you’d like to partner with, no matter how big or small, use your networks to get in touch. If you’re connected to similar businesses through social media or through business events contact relevant individuals to see if they’d be interesting in collaborating on your expansion in their country. Make sure during your discussions that goals and interests are aligned, this will help avoid any potentially hazardous conflicts in the future of your partnership.
While a partnership in an emerging market may seem daunting, we hope these tips will help you figure out the uncertain terrain that comes with business expansion. Partnering with local experts is essential to navigating a new and foreign region, and you’ll end up saving a lot of time and money by utilizing the expert knowledge of a business that works in the local market.
Sources:
http://www.privateproperty.co.za/advice/property/articles/top-5-tips-for-investing-in-emerging-markets/285 https://salesandmarketing.com/article/going-international-ideas-entering-markets-around-globe
http://www.tradeready.ca/2015/trade-takeaways/one-big-advantage-leverage-break-into-emerging-markets/ http://www.marketingresearch.org/article/succeed-emerging-markets-selection-strategy-and-first-steps