As the world experiences the challenges of the global pandemic, there are opportunities for brands to help individuals in countries in ways that they may not have first conceived.

As we know, there are individual financial, mental and physical realities to the pandemic, which affect consumer sentiment.

Because of this, brand leaders are rethinking their product value and global responsibility towards helping consumers better themselves and their communities in countries they may not have initially thought of – a true win-win.

Categories that are thriving in the digital and physical goods space online include food and beverage, household goods, apparel, fitness and entertainment. 

How do you start evaluating what we call the Global Whitespace Opportunity Map?

There are two straight-forward steps:

1) Forget what you know, and

2) With open eyes, do a bit of investigation into regions and countries to gauge changing consumer sentiment, product or service value proposition fit and global customer acquisition variables. 

In our work with brand leaders, we like to create a color-coordinated hexagon next to countries we are evaluating to get a quick color gauge as to how likely of a candidate the country is to provide a meaningful business engagement.

The six areas we code are as follows:

1. Money Management

A nuanced and critical area to understand, money management includes everything from addressing a frictionless checkout experience for the local consumer, to repatriation of funds. Expert understanding in this area accelerates entry into new countries and often can create a competitive advantage around pricing and profitability. 

2. Customer Acquisition Costs:

One of the key areas to test is how costly it is to acquire an international consumer and through which channels provide the most cost effective means to attract the right consumer segment. We measure this variable in an eight week data driven testing program across multiple countries to create a baseline measurement.

3. Logistics

For physical goods brands evaluating cross border delivery or 3PL relationships are key to the cost and customer delivery expectations. Mis-understood terms in agreements with cross border logistics providers are often a major stumbling block.

4. Customer Care

One of the leading indicators of a successful global launch is the thoughtfulness put towards listening to the local consumer early on in the investigation period. The consumer journey often shifts when addressing the international customer and understanding the nuance of language and stepped journey provides for a unique referenceable experience, which is the true north of any recognizable brand. 

5. Value Proposition Fit

An examination across the entire value chain, value proposition fit can be realized in all sorts of ways that encompases a complete look at everything from checkout, to returns policies, to the intrinsic unique strengths of your product fit. Almost every brand we have worked with is surprised by how value propositions can shift from country to country. 

6. Global Variables

Political climate, consumer category sentiment, currency fluctuation and many of the 20+ global variables that can affect in-country success are important to understand when rating your global whitespace opportunities. 

As companies better understand global customer acquisition variables, and the unique strengths of their products or services, they can develop new meaningful business creating affinity and meaningful long term relationships with a new consumer base. 

If you are interested in learning more about how to map out your global whitespace opportunity contact globalwhitespace@transperfect.com.