Already a big slice of global trades are taking place through Internet. According to Forrester Research, a major marketing research company, worldwide online exports will escalate to US $1.4 trillion in 2004, and cross-border e-marketplace trade will exceed US $400 billion in this year alone.

However, cross-border trading will create a division between companies that actively import and export using Internet and those that don't. Companies that are slow in adopting Internet will loose competitive edge to more proactive Internet-savvy counter parts.

If you are already involved in international trade or planning to either import or export products, Internet could be your primary source of gathering data, researching prospective market, finding clients and, may be even, for doing your entire business online.

First, let’s look into export side of international trade. Like any other business, exporting requires proper planning. Well-documented and clearly written export marketing plan will work as your road map to success. The following steps are essential for any export endeavor. Identifying products for export

Although, in any given time you may find numerous products that qualify as exportable one, your chance for success will increase substantially if your chosen product met following criteria:

- You have been handling this product for local market for several years - You have full confidence in quality of product - The value of product matches or exceeds imported similar ones - You have guaranteed availability of this product for export

If you don’t have a product to export yet, and you are serious about export oriented business, consider checking out your local trade shows to seek out an exportable product.

Local online marketplaces are good options for finding products for export as well.

Identifying potential export markets for your products

To identify an export market you have to spend sometimes on gathering necessary information.

You will need export statistics of your country to see which markets are presently buying products similar to yours. This will give an idea which markets are viable for you to target. Apart from checking statistics from you own country, you also should verify export statistics from several other countries that manufacture and export similar products.

After analyzing this information, choose couple of markets for further assessment. This time you will need more in depth information on these markets. Doing market research

Market research is imperative in order to identify export potential of a product in a targeted country. There are two ways you can research your targeted market.

By getting first-hand information from targeted market

After years of hard work, finally your business started to pick up. You are selling more products then ever! You have lined up a good number of suppliers and buyers. Things have never been better than now. Except one thing! With rising sales your overhead and supply chain expenses are also sky-rocketing. Your profit margin is no longer same as it used to be! You feel that you are in a limbo! How to increase productivity? How to cut costs without giving up sales?

Sounds familiar to you? Well, your company is not alone! According to IDC, a research firm, while interviewed, overwhelming majority of company executives claimed that their biggest concern is declining profit margins.

Companies, in order to stay competitive, must find solutions to increase efficiency in business operations and control costs. Is there a solution to this ubiquitous problem?

Remember Dorothy from children classic “Wizard of Oz”? She had to go through numerous obstacles in her quest to find a way to get back to Kansas, her home. Only to find out that silver shoes that she was wearing from very first day since cyclone brought her to Land of Oz could have taken her back home, all she had to do was to knock heels together three times and command shoes to carry her wherever she wished to go.

Similar to this story, solutions to these corporate problems are widely available right under your nose, only you as a company executive have to overcome fear of new technologies and adopt them to your own good.

B2B exchanges or emarketplaces are capable of solving many key problems that corporations are facing today. Emarketplaces can provide immense opportunities to automate supply chain process, increase operational efficiency, reduce overhead costs and expand market at a minimal cost.

Using emarketplace effectively Two primary factors of company productivity are Revenue Increase and Cost Cutting. Both are achievable if a company seriously decides to incorporate emarketplace features in all aspects of business operations. That means if as a company you want to reap all benefits of emarketplaces, you have to commit yourself seriously.

Become a member Once you find an emarketplace that suits your requirement, first thing what you have to do is to register and become a member. Most emarketplaces have different membership packages. Although, to check out emarketplace – whether it is viable for your business or not – you might start with free membership package, but once you are satisfied with your selection, to use emarketplace to your advantage you should choose package with most features and functions.