Need for Export Departments
Exporting goods and services means selling goods and services to other countries. Exporting goods is different from selling goods in a local country as the dynamics of the overseas market are altogether different from the local market. Different countries have different trade policies, different market regulations, different demands, and different consumer behavior. In order to deal with so many differences, companies need some central department that can deal with these issues and help the company in exporting their goods and services to other countries. To meet these challenges, it is important for companies to have a separate export department that can effectively oversee and manage the export operations.

Further, companies are always looking for new markets and globally extend to more customers. To study potential opportunities along with the possible challenges that are there in the global markets, companies need a dedicated team who can guide the company in expanding its operations in other countries by constantly studying economic situations, demand, and consumer preferences of the overseas markets. It is better to have a separate export department that is looking over functions such as getting orders, communicating with potential and existing customers, dispatching goods as per orders, and collecting payments for the goods sold, etc. In order to effectively manage the export operations, it is advisable to have a separate export department.

Functions of Export Departments
In any company that is exporting goods and services in the global markets, a typical export department would be doing the following activities:

Study the export potential for a company’s products and services in different overseas markets (countries).

Understand the foreign trade policies of local government, as well as of those countries where the company intends to export its products and services.

Formulate the plan for marketing the products and services of the company for different overseas markets – both short term as well as long term.

Carry out marketing activities such as advertisement, promotion, etc. in order to spread the awareness of the company and its products and services.

Contact potential buyers and negotiate with them for the pricing of the products, obtain export orders from the customers.

Coordinate with the production and other departments of the company in order to ensure that the export orders are met within the stipulated time

Oversee the actual export of products and ensure that the export documents are in order

Getting paid for the products and services exported

Receiving feedback from customers about the company’s products and making efforts to get repeat orders

Constantly studying the changes in the overseas market to understand the opportunities and threats to the company and accordingly changing the plans.

Challenges Faced by the Export Departments
Exporting goods and services to different countries poses certain challenges to the export departments, some of which are as follows:

The constant challenge for the export departments is that they have to deal with the different cultures, languages, consumer preferences, and laws of different countries. They need to study and deal with these diverse factors and accordingly align the companies’ policies in order to smoothly run export functions.

Changes in foreign governments, trade policies, custom tariffs, etc., affect the prospects of the companies’ exports to a large extent. Export departments need to study and respond to these changes.

Changes in prices of products in the overseas markets, global competition, changes in foreign exchange rates, as well as fluctuation in dollar rates, etc., have an impact on the pricing as well as the profitability of exports. These factors also pose challenges to the effective functioning of export departments.

Studying the creditworthiness of potential clients and the extent to which credit should be extended to them also poses issues as the information related to the credit and other financial aspects is not freely available in other countries. In the United States, companies can very easily

get the credit report of a client, which is not the case with so many developing countries.

Companies’ trade is not restricted to their own countries; they sell their goods and services in the global markets by way of export to different countries. Exporting goods and services to other countries brings an opportunity to sell products and services to a wider market base and globally increase the sales as well as footprints of the companies.

In order to carry out the export activities and manage them, companies have their own export departments that look after the various activities that are related to and associated with exports in the global markets. Such departments perform a variety of tasks, such as identifying the potential markets, developing an export strategy, building relationships with customers and agents overseas as well as actual export of goods and services to the global markets. Export departments play a very influential role in the international trade of companies worldwide.

Exporting goods and services means selling goods and services to other countries. Exporting goods is different from selling goods in a local country as the dynamics of the overseas market are altogether different from the local market. Different countries have different trade policies, different market regulations, different demands, and different consumer behavior. In order to deal with so many differences, companies need some central department that can deal with these issues and help the company in exporting their goods and services to other countries. To meet these challenges, it is important for companies to have a separate export department that can effectively oversee and manage the export operations.

Further, companies are always looking for new markets and globally extend to more customers. To study potential opportunities along with the possible challenges that are there in the global markets, companies need a dedicated team who can guide the company in expanding its operations in other countries by constantly studying economic situations, demand, and consumer preferences of the overseas markets. It is better to have a separate export department that is looking over functions such as getting orders, communicating with potential and existing customers, dispatching goods as per orders, and collecting payments for the goods sold, etc. In order to effectively manage the export operations, it is advisable to have a separate export department.

Companies’ trade is not restricted to their own countries; they sell their goods and services in the global markets by way of export to different countries. Exporting goods and services to other countries brings an opportunity to sell products and services to a wider market base and globally increase the sales as well as footprints of the companies.

In order to carry out the export activities and manage them, companies have their own export departments that look after the various activities that are related to and associated with exports in the global markets. Such departments perform a variety of tasks, such as identifying the potential markets, developing an export strategy, building relationships with customers and agents overseas as well as actual export of goods and services to the global markets. Export departments play a very influential role in the international trade of companies worldwide.

Exporting goods and services means selling goods and services to other countries. Exporting goods is different from selling goods in a local country as the dynamics of the overseas market are altogether different from the local market. Different countries have different trade policies, different market regulations, different demands, and different consumer behavior. In order to deal with so many differences, companies need some central department that can deal with these issues and help the company in exporting their goods and services to other countries. To meet these challenges, it is important for companies to have a separate export department that can effectively oversee and manage the export operations.

Further, companies are always looking for new markets and globally extend to more customers. To study potential opportunities along with the possible challenges that are there in the global markets, companies need a dedicated team who can guide the company in expanding its operations in other countries by constantly studying economic situations, demand, and consumer preferences of the overseas markets. It is better to have a separate export department that is looking over functions such as getting orders, communicating with potential and existing customers, dispatching goods as per orders, and collecting payments for the goods sold, etc. In order to effectively manage the export operations, it is advisable to have a separate export department.