The global ecommerce market is booming.
It’s expected to grow by more than 50% over the next 5 years, showing that there’s a great opportunity to branch out into foreign markets.
The problem is ecommerce stores face a myriad of challenges when expanding globally.
In this guide, you’ll learn everything there is to know about international ecommerce, including considerations to make before expanding and tips to set you up for international success.
What is international ecommerce?
International ecommerce is the process of selling products and services online to multiple countries and regions.
Unlike local ecommerce, in which a store sells within its country of origin, international ecommerce allows retailers to expand their reach beyond borders.
Ecommerce companies are often much more equipped to globalize than traditional brick-and-mortar businesses since scaling communication to greater markets is infinitely easier online.
Why should small and medium ecommerce shops go global?
In August 2012, eBay officially announced the launch of its “Global Shipping Program,” allowing U.S. sellers to easily reach international buyers.
This was one of the biggest global initiatives by one of the major ecommerce platforms in the world.
It’s one thing for a major ecommerce giant with extensive resources to go global, but what about small and medium businesses?
Here are a few things to keep in mind:
1. Increase revenue
If your ultimate goal is to increase revenue, there are only a few ways to do this:
- You have to increase the price of your product (or decrease the cost to produce it).
- You have to increase your return customer rate.
- You have to increase your total customer base.
Going global with your ecommerce store taps into the third strategy. It’s not so easy to raise the price of your product on a whim or convince people to buy again.
But, with about eight billion people on earth, you can always tap into a larger potential market.
By gaining access to customers outside your national borders, you increase your potential pool of customers and give yourself the opportunity to increase your store revenue.
2. Combat market saturation
Just like the point above, if you go beyond your borders, you give yourself access to new potential revenue.
But another reason you should expand your ecommerce marketing outside your country is to fight against market saturation.
If you only target national customers, you’re competing against brands in a limited market.
There are only so many people in your country, and the odds of offering a product or service that’s saturated — everyone who wants it already has it — increase if you limit your reach.
3. Diversify risk
Staying inside a single country with your ecommerce store doesn’t just mean you’re climbing an uphill battle against saturation. It also means you’re not diversified.
Imagine if your country goes through a national recession or war.
Your chips are all in on a single country, subject to macroeconomic factors outside of your control.
By opening up your target market to new countries, you’re diversifying your risk, giving your store the best chance to succeed.
4. Improve brand reach
Your reach isn’t limited to your local country when you own and operate an ecommerce store. Yet, millions of digital retailers still operate as if they run a brick-and-mortar store.
If you want to improve your brand reach, start marketing to new countries, languages, and groups.
5. Meet the needs of people who don’t speak your language
More and more customers choose brands they feel represented by. 40% of consumers will not engage with content if it’s not in their local language.
If you want to target a new audience in Spain, but your store is only available in English, a Spanish person will likely bounce from your ecommerce store in seconds.
Why?
Because they can’t understand it, it’s harder to engage with, and they don’t feel represented.
If you want to go global, you need to go local. Optimize your ecommerce store with local languages and cultural references that are relevant to each segment of your audience.
6. Increase your growth potential
Another reason you should consider expanding your ecommerce business to new countries and regions is to take the lid off your growth.
If you only market to your country, your growth potential will be capped.
By expanding beyond your borders, you’ll be able to plan for long-term growth that will impact you and your ecommerce business for years, if not decades.
Considerations to make before going global with your ecommerce store
Here are a few things you need to keep in mind when expanding globally:
1. Is there opportunity to grow in your target market?
It’s a huge investment of your money (and time) to target new markets with your eccomerce store, so you’ll need to know if there’s actually demand for your products.
One way to mitigate the risk is to quickly spin up a site in another language to see how well your products sell in that untapped market expansion.
By testing your offer online with a ‘soft launch’ of your store, you save a ton of time and money by testing via minimal investment.
1. Is your translation accurate?
To expand your ecommerce business into new territories, you need to ensure you translate your content accurately so people understand what they’re purchasing.
It’s crucial to establish accurate translations on your digital communications, otherwise you’ll confuse (and lose) your potential customers.
You should also take into consideration countries like Canada which may have regional language preferences (French-speaking and English-speaking Canadians).
2. Are you localizing your content?
Translation isn’t enough to go global. You also need to consider cultural differences.
But, you need to be careful.
For example, if you’re allowing someone to select a different language on your website, it’s best to not use country flags to represent languages (i.e. U.K. flag for English, France flag for French).
Why?
You need to be conscious of your audience. Using a British flag to represent the English language to an American audience isn’t going to land well.
Instead, you should prompt your audience to ‘Choose Location’ which creates a better user experience across the board.
3. What currency and payment options will you offer?
North American customers may be comfortable paying in USD via PayPal or credit card.
But what about your Chinese customers? They’ll likely want to pay with RMB via WeChat Pay or Alipay.
Before you launch into new markets and regions, make sure you research the currency your customers prefer to pay with and their preferred payment methods.
4. Are you using the right digital marketing channels?
Are you on the right social media platforms and search engines for your target market?
Before you launch, you should know where your new target audiences hang out online.
For example, in North America, people primarily use Google to search for information and products online.
But, in other regions, they use different search engines like Yandex in Russia and Baidu in China.
On social media, North Americans commonly use TikTok, but in China, they use a Chinese version called Douyin.
Also consider back-end technical localization adaptations like top-level domains in different countries (i.e. .co.uk, .de, .sg).
5. How will you set up logistics in different countries?
Marketing and selling to a new country is one thing. Running a smooth shipping and return policy is another.
Ask yourself the following to set up proper logistics:
- What kind of shipping options will you have?
- What about return policies?
- Will these questions have different answers for each country?
6. Will you add on 24/7 customer support?
If you only target Americans, you likely only need to offer customer support in English from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST, give or take a few hours.
But what if you’re now targeting customers in Europe or Asia?
If you have customers who speak different languages and are in different time zones, you need to adapt your customer support translation.
You may want to consider hiring customer support specialists who speak different languages and operate at different hours.
International ecommerce readiness checklist for growing businesses
- Decide why you’re seeking to expand globally
- Decide where you will expand your business
- Estimate the potential expenses of expanding into a new region
- Estimate the potential revenue for expanding into a new region
- Decide the first country you will expand into
- Confirm whether your new markets are niche enough
- Confirm how you’ll sell in new countries (What platforms will you use?)
- Confirm how you’ll market and adapt your content to new regions
- Confirm how you will get your product into the new country
- Do you need to customize your products for each market?
- Is your website ready with translated and localized content?
- Do you have proper shipping and logistics set up for each region?
5 tips to set you up for international ecommerce success
Ready to go global with your ecommerce store?
Don’t forget to follow these crucial tips to ensure you make your international expansion a success:
Conduct market research and make plans
Before you expand into a potential expansion opportunity, make sure to conduct thorough research to ensure it’s the right move.
This means analyzing several factors:
- Languages
- Regions
- Countries
- Local laws
- Cultures
- Wants
- Needs
- Logistics
- Shipping
- Handling
- Competition
- Estimated expansion costs
- Estimated expansion revenue
| 💡Remember, just because you can expand to a country or region doesn’t mean it’s the right choice. There will be pros and cons to each expansion region. |
2. Use the right ecommerce platforms
Not all ecommerce platforms are set up smoothly for international trade.
If you want to grow your business in new global markets, you need to use the right ecommerce platform to establish a firm foundation.
For example, a good option for international selling is Shopify multi-language since it integrates with various translation apps, allowing you to get a multilingual store with just a few clicks.
Not on Shopify? Other ecommerce platforms with multilingual support include:
1. WooCommerce
2. Wix
3. Squarespace
4. BigCommerce
5. PrestaShop
3. Test out one market first
Before you start marketing to dozens of new countries to expand your business, it’s best to first test out one new market.
Start small with one foreign country expansion. This will give you the know-how to ensure you can easily expand to dozens of other countries with ease.
4. Remain compliant with local laws
One more crucial tip you need to keep in mind for your international online sales: compliance.
Different countries will have different laws and regulations when it comes to the trade of goods.
You need to always ensure you’re following local laws and regulations to avoid fines or potentially harm your brand reputation.
It’s especially important to consider items that are illegal to sell in certain countries.
For example, did you know Twinkies are banned in Austria, Finland, and Norway?
Chances are, you’re probably not selling this long-time American treat, but it’s a good reason you should always do your research on local laws to maintain compliance.
Grow your international sales with Lokalise
Launching, growing, and scaling an ecommerce store is one of the most exciting ways to succeed in business and one of the best ways to expand your reach, diversify risk, and grow your revenue.
But in order to tap into new markets effectively, you need to understand how to adapt the way you communicate through proper translation and localization.
With Lokalise, you can create a store experience for your international customers that feels unmistakably local.
| Why choose Lokalise? ✔️ Translations with built-in quality evaluation ✔️ Glossary and style guide for contextual and on brand translations ✔️ No coding skills needed ✔️ 137 languages available ✔️ Automatic translations ✔️ Great support |
The best part?
