The Costa Rican Chamber of Exporters (CADEXCO), together with companies UPS and RGX (Global Export Network) organized the international seminar “Purchasing process of small and medium importers of the Americas”, in which they announced the results of the 2017 UPS Business Monitor Export Index in Latin America study.
According to the study, 47% of importers are looking for new international suppliers, suggesting that there is an opportunity for exporters to find new buyers. Industrial and commercial fairs were cited as the most used channel to find new suppliers by 28 percent, followed by commercial missions by 21%
In the region, 21% of companies surveyed indicated that they expect potential suppliers to contact them, reflecting the opportunity for proactive exporters to present focused and well-founded business proposals, either by e-mail or phone.
Brazilian importers are the most proactive in finding new suppliers, although 5% indicate that they do not get in touch with new sellers, but wait to be contacted. Importers in the United States were the least proactive: one in three (31%) indicated that they did not contact suppliers.
Importers indicated that the two main product traits that influence their purchasing decision are quality (97%) and price (87%) , followed by the services offered by the seller such as flexibility in terms of payment and the post-sale services.
In the clothing industry segment, exporters looking for new markets to develop should consider the United States, Costa Rica and Chile. These countries had the highest percentage of respondents in search of new suppliers.
In the automotive sector, Colombia and Costa Rica have the largest percentage of importers looking for new suppliers. In the buying process, the high-tech industry registers the highest level of online purchases. This is due to the preference of importers for finding new suppliers through this route, the high number of respondents completing online purchases (50%), as well as the more frequent and varied use of promotional tools in the network.
The seminar was presented by Mariano Mastrangelo, Consultant Director of RGX, who explained to the audience some issues such as the markets in America that are more likely to import according to the production sector, as well as how to prioritize and select the target markets, and that the media are using importers to find new suppliers.