Opening your business to an international audience? International sales can be highly profitable, but how do you get started and ensure your business is a success? Learn how to get your eCommerce business ready for international sales in this blog.
Picking Your Target Location Carefully
How to sell internationally? The first step is to choose an international market. International selling is more than just choosing the best market out there. You need to pick a market carefully and ensure your business that targets customers in that particular market. There are some factors you can consider, including:
- The languages are spoken at the markets you want to attract. Is it an English-speaking market or will you have to translate your product across platforms?
- The culture of the country. Is your product designed for a particular country or will they probably not need it?
- Consumer culture. Is your product culturally sensitive to the country you are targeting?
- Licensing. Are you legally allowed to sell products in the country or will you need a licence?
- Shipping costs. How expensive will it be to ship products to the country?
- Political issues. Is the country going through economic and political instability that will affect your sales?
- Taxes. Will tax cost you more than your income expected?
Once you address all these factors, you can choose a country or countries that work best for your business.
Adapting Your Marketing Strategy
Now that you know where you are going to sell products, you need a marketing strategy. Look at the best-selling items at markets. If you are a makeup brand targeting customers in America for example, you might find they prefer foundations that are suitable for a range of diverse skin types. You can create a strategy around customers that are searching or buying these products (think automated tools such as CRS email marketing tools and paid advertising channels).
Selling products to a new market is not easy but through a marketing strategy around research, automation, and digital channels, you are more likely to see success.
Planning Operations Such As Shipping, Returns, and Fulfilment
Shipping and returns can be complicated when selling globally. To sell abroad, you need good shipping and return procedures in place, or you’re going to have unhappy customers calling you up. Using fulfilment companies might make your job easier as most of these companies offer options for returns. If a customer needs to take special measures for returns, or if refunds are not possible, you should state this on your website to avoid legal complications (and bad reviews).
Don’t forget to update your website with your international shipping procedures, times, and additional payments needed.
Adapting Your Website and Customer Service to Meet Local Needs
Your international users need to be able to find and use your eCommerce website easily. If they are in another country, you might need to translate your website to the country’s native language. Make sure you add a language option on your website so customers can toggle between English and their native language if and when needed.
You also need to update your website page’s search engine optimisation (SEO). Your SEO pages can help customers who are searching from a particular country to find your company. After updating your website, you need to add a customer service centre or details for locals to contact should they need to reach you or have queries.
If you want to sell products abroad, you might find yourself needing expert help. The Terracor team can help you with business consulting to take your eCommerce business to an international level.
Contact our team for our services for international sales for eCommerce businesses, today!
