We are passing through one of the most exciting times in the history of world trade. Of course, there are challenges in many regions of the globe but being a futurist, I can there are some unique emerging trends in the export-import business that will guide businesses in the future. As more and more companies are expanding in international markets, here are 5 emerging trends that can not be ignored by anyone:

Rise of megacities: Research shows that the world population is expected to reach 10 billion by 2057. So, as we have seen in the past, there will be more pressure on cities as the population in many big cities is expected to surge multifold. If the marketers can design their strategy and just focus on the top 5 or 10 cities like Tokyo, Delhi, Shanghai, Dhaka, and Sao Paulo, they can reach a far bigger population with lesser effort than focusing on several small countries. In the future, we possibly may have to work on a city-specific strategy instead of a country-specific strategy

Reverse Globalization: We have seen many phases of globalisation in last few decades but in the short run we may witness reverse globalization. What I mean here is that more and more countries are going to encourage domestic production plus foreign investment and restrict imports to support local manufacturers.

Disruptive Business Models:By this, I mean sharing economy, which may continue to gain more traction in times to come . The way I see the future , we will get more and more collaborative trends among different industries where it would be difficult to get the real meaning of “origin “ of any product. Collaborative consumption will reshape many industries and traditional global models will likely be disrupted. We have already seen such disruptive ideas in the past few years, whether its skill sharing or tools sharing, home sharing or taxi sharing, but be prepared to expect the unexpected !

Sustainable and Purpose-driven Business:As technology reaches more and more homes, Consumers will demand more environmentally-friendly practices, ethical supply chains, and responsible corporate governance. The exporters and manufacturers that don’t listen to prioritize sustainability and purpose-driven initiatives may soon be history. We all know that our nature has only finite resources, so global businesses may need to adopt circular economy principles, reduce waste, and prioritize resource efficiency.

Technology is the future:As we all see many advancements in technology, such as artificial intelligence, automation, virtual reality, and robotics, I am sure that things will get more revolutionize the way businesses operate. Automation will replace many manual tasks, while AI may optimize our decision-making steps. The future will belong to those exporters that can adapt and leverage technology.

The global business has changed in the past few decades but we all know it's just a beginning ! #business #export #ai