Where Swiss companies buy

"Swiss buyers favor Western Europe in the majority, even though this market is known to be higher priced," says Peter F. Schmid, CEO of "Wer liefert was". "Western Europe stands for short lead times and high quality products and services. This is an important aspect of trust and a decisive factor in speed," says Schmid.

Low prices as a driver for internationalization of the procurement market

From the buyers' point of view, the procurement market is becoming increasingly international. 78.2 percent of respondents believe that there will be such a trend for the next 5 years, only 21.8 percent denied this. For 80.4 percent, low prices are the advantages of procuring abroad. After all, half of the respondents say, "The supply/choice is greater." Hardly seen as an advantage are better quality of products/services (5.9 %) or faster delivery times (7.9 %). 7.8 percent see no advantages at all in sourcing abroad.

Lack of quality, time expenditure and cost intransparency as stumbling blocks

As an obstacle to globalization of purchasing, 44.3 percent cited that the quality of products and services abroad is not high enough. The time required to search for and find suitable suppliers was cited as a particular challenge (42.3 %), as was the lack of transparency of costs due to customs duties and taxation, for example (39.4 %), failure to meet delivery deadlines (37.5 percent) and language barriers (30.8 %). "Swiss buyers benefit from the very good conditions on the domestic procurement market," explains Peter F. Schmid. "The leap to non-European markets is too uncertain for many due to a lack of framework conditions such as trade agreements. However, this will change in the next few years, as this is where high savings potential lies," says Schmid.

Digitization simplifies purchasing on international markets

61.6 percent of respondents see digitization as a reason for the internationalization of the procurement market, because it simplifies access to markets around the world. "Habits are breaking and the opportunities of digitization are being seen," knows Peter F. Schmid. "The search for products and services has long since shifted to the Internet. But for purchasing in SMEs, it will be important in the future to create a holistic digital system. Digital infrastructure means implementing intelligent software and procurement systems in workflows; not only production must be digitized, but all areas of the value chain. This starts with purchasing, extends to logistics and customer approach, and extends to marketing and sales. Investing in this form of digitization makes sense not only for reasons of efficiency, but above all for competitive reasons. Our offering at wlw.de is the starting point for efficient supplier networking."

For 60.5 percent of buyers, an equally important reason for internationalization is rising price and cost pressure and thus increasing international competition. "Here, too, digitization plays an important role because it has become increasingly easy to compare prices and the procurement market has become more transparent," says Schmid. "At the same time, internationalization offers the opportunity to offer one's own products and services across national borders."

Buyers use Google and business search engines

Because searching the Internet has become the norm, 76.2 percent of Swiss buyers look for foreign suppliers on Google or other general search engines. 41.6 percent use business search engines such as "Wer liefert was" (Who supplies what), and only 15 percent use their own supplier databases. Not to be neglected in the digital age, however, is the importance of personal recommendations - for example, via colleagues or existing contacts with buyers: At 42.6 percent, word-of-mouth recommendations are still very popular.

Source: www.wlw.ch