With the beginning of year, we all take a look at what we did in 2009 and evaluate what has worked and what has not for our businesses. For importers, this means putting actionable plans together to understand their markets and grow their businesses while cutting unneeded costs.

1. Look for more opportunities

With all that is required to run an importing business, it is often difficult to rise above the daily grind and look for ways to find growth opportunities. Importers that bring in a significant volume of containers have the advantage of economies of scale, and one easy way to organically grow is to find importers that ship smaller volumes. By finding these companies, you can make a profit while saving them money on product and transportation costs for smaller shipments.

2. Ensure compliance of my suppliers

Contracts are not complete once you have signed an agreement with a supplier. Importers need to be constantly tracking their suppliers’ compliance with the terms of the contract and the laws of the United States. This takes looking at all shipment records for a supplier, monitoring exclusive distribution clauses, and ensuring product classifications and labeling are correct. Successful monitoring results in fewer shipments detained by Customs and suppliers paying for broken terms.

3. Optimize the classification of my products

Product classification is highly important in many industries and the difference between one HTS code and another may mean thousands of dollars to your business. Defining your products correctly at the beginning of their life cycles will result in fewer holds by Customs and more effective tariff management. Looking at how competitors are currently assigning their products is one of the simple activities that can save time and money down the road.

4. See existing information in new ways

The old saying of “not seeing the forest through the trees” holds true for many importers. Often they are inundated with too much information to make effective, timely decisions. Looking at trends and market changes can be very difficult and time consuming when seeing only individual shipment records. However, when rolled up to higher level reports and from different sides of the information, the data transforms into actionable intelligence. Instead of spending of hours massaging existing reports to view this higher level, use a better tool that reveals this knowledge within the online application.

5. Monitor my competitors better

It seems like every year I hear importers tell me that they are going to do a better job of knowing what their competitors are doing. This often falls by the wayside as the year goes on, but making the resolution to set up easy tracking early on is the difference between the success and failure of a monitoring program. Use the tools at your disposal to set up saved searches and resolve to update your reports every week. This will allow you to move more quickly and react earlier to new product launches, pricing changes, and supply shifts.

With these five resolutions for 2010, importers can take the steps needed to improve their businesses. However, ensuring that you have the data needed to execute them is another matter. Zepol has made it easier to subscribe to our trade databases and improved our training to help you meet specific goals. Please take the time to set up a demonstration with one of our industry experts to learn more.