Today in Global Small Business: Freightos Agrees to SPAC Merger

©iStock/Victoria Koitsova

What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• Freightos, a fast-growing ocean and air freight marketplace similar to Expedia in air travel, announced recently it is going public through a merger with Gersher Acquisition Company.  Some interesting investors to date - surprise, surprise.
• Maersk boss say global trade is not going in reverse (might require registration).
• Roku and Walmart partner in exclusive streaming ecommerce offering.
• Retail sales slump?  Not if you operate in clothing.
• Quote of the week:  “If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.” – Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon.com
• Who knew we needed to read Trade Therapy.

The Freightos Baltic Index (FBX): Global Container Freight Index

©iStock/AvigatorPhotographer

Select a route to see live international freight rates, prices and trends, updated daily from the world's largest freight rate index. For live, bookable quotes, check out Freightos. 

Is the Freight Forwarding Industry Primitive In Its Approach?

©iStock/Khadi Ganiev

Hundreds of thousands of small businesses constitute nearly 97% of total registered companies, collectively responsible for one-third of all U.S. imports and technology.  This industry has helped in making international trade processes a lot smoother than what the scenario was a decade ago but international freight still has a long way to go.

Though the popular opinion about the international freight forwarding industry is that it is primitive in its approach to technology, [Eytan] Buchman the VP of Marketing at Freightos] contends that the situation is a lot different than it looks. He believes this boils down to the dissonance between the perceptions of the shipper and freight forwarder towards international freight processes - while existing on opposite ends of the spectrum.

Read more to learn the effects of the international freight movement on small businesses.

Today in Global Small Business: How to Take Advantage of Significant Duty Savings On Imports

©iStock/Emarto

What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• How do you predict the future?  These 8 tips might help.
• The Global Small Business Forum held in Chicago on 10/23/15.  Have you registered?
• Would you recognize DHL Global Forwarding as a top employer?
• How U.S. importers can take advantage of significant duty savings.
• Trend for female entrepreneurship is significantly up globally.
• The best supply chain and logistics blogs on the web (according to Freightos).

Happy Labor Day to all Americans who have contributed to the strength of our economy.