You’re either reading this because you’re an E-Commerce Merchant looking to expand your marketplace internationally, or you’re looking to become one. Either way, you’ve come to the right place. In this blog, you’ll learn the steps you need to take to make sure your E-Commerce business will be successful internationally and why selling your products and services overseas may be easier than you think. To start, here are a few foundational items you need to know: First, you need to ensure your business has the right legal and tax structure. Second, you have to offer local currency as a form of payment for your products or services. Lastly, you must be able to get the products to them through easy and affordable shipping.
While these points are essential, there are a few more steps to cover if you want to ensure success in international expansion for your ecommerce business. For starters: have you assessed the international opportunity available to your E-Commerce business? Why invest your valuable time and hard-earned money into something if it’s not going to pay off? To assess this, you must begin by analyzing your products to see which are best suited for overseas marketplaces. A great way to do this is by conducting SEO and keyword research. Speaking of SEO, it is also incredibly important to make sure your business is searchable internationally through the power of keyword search.
Once you’ve decided that the international market is favorable for your business, it’s important to test the marketplace. Spoiler alert: The overwhelming consensus on this is that selling on a large online marketplace like Amazon or Alibaba is the most cost-effective way to enter a new international market. Next, you must focus on the user experience by making sure your shopping experience is compatible with all devices, languages, and currencies. Quick note on currency: Make sure to prioritize accepting multi-currency payments, to accept all international currency to USD. It’s invaluable to be able to give your international customers a way to pay in their own currency, but for you as the merchant to be paid in USD.
The next step is to make sure your company’s customer support team is ready to take on the international markets. To do this, you must have adequate staffing available especially at peak service times, and a way to translate languages and communicate with your customers effectively. Last, as mentioned previously: Shipping. You must have a way to get your goods in the hands of consumers at a low cost to you. There are tools available that allow you to automate and streamline this process, which will save you time. It’s also abundantly important to invest in tracking: Tracking of shipments to and from your customers, and tracking of your business as a whole while making the switch to international.
There you have it: The top ways we’ve identified to conquer your shift to international E-commerce selling. If you have questions on this for our team, be sure to reach out here.
