International eCommerce

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MEET YOUR CUSTOMERS ONLINE

  • Be visible
    • Advertise, no one knows you are there
  • Build trust
    • Is the currency in their own currency?
  • Deliver great individual customer service
  • Have the right product or service
  • Most companies get into international ecommerce accidentally. Do your research.

CHALLENGES

  • Logistics
  • Taxes and Import Duty
  • Data policies
  • Translation and Localisation
  • Payment
  • Process / Customer service and returns
  • Cost
  • How and where to start

LOGISTICS MODELS

  • Direct shipping, drop shipping
  • Amazon FBA
  • 3rd Party logistics

TAXES & DUTY

  • No deal Brexit guidelines
  • Now: From UK to EU: Pay VAT to UK
  • If you ship more than 50-100k EUR to EU companies you might need to register in those companies
  • From UK to US. You do not need to pay VAT
  • If it is under 800 USD – no import duties
  • Nexus – business entity in USA. If you do not have nexus in USA no local sales tax. Which means tax free. If you are pricing exactly as UK, there is an extra 20% you can play with (as there is no VAT)
  • If you are hosting stock in USA, it is complicated. Ask an expert.

COUNTRIES

  • Germany and France ecommerce is growing.
  • Japan is different from S. Korea in terms of culturally but similar in ecommerce.
  • USA, different behaviours in different states. Amazon is 50% of ecommerce in USA.
  • China ecommerce 1 trillion GBP revenue in 2020. It is different than rest of the world.
    • Great firewall of China. Different apps and platforms.
    • You do not need registered business in China now. But need right partners.
  • Middle east – ecommerce is filling mid range products. Tech savvy. Logistics is challenge.

RESEARCH

  • Global Market Finder
  • G Analytics
  • G Keyword planner
  • G Trends
  • G Shopper Insights
  • G Consumer Barometer
  • Paypal Passport
  • Santander or Lloyds Trade Portal
  • The Paypers

WEBSITE

  • Objective of the website
  • Target audience – their triggers and barriers
  • Are there multiple user journeys?
  • Conversion points?
  • Catalogue Management
  • Payment gateways
    • Paypal – bad exchange rates. Stripe is better for localized payments. You can get payments in different currencies in Stripe.
  • Management and maintenance
  • Ease of use, user experience
  • Scalability
  • Multi-channel integration
  • Translation
    • Google Translate can work to an extend. It is better with AI in 2018.
  • Localization
    • Local language – Google Translate for mass translations. Manually translate important bits
    • Use metric measurements relevant to that country
    • Currency converter / local currencies
    • Provide information about duties and taxes in different markets
    • Make sure contact form fields accept different language

TRAFFIC SOURCES

E-MARKETPLACES

  • Access to customer in a trusted environment
  • You keep control of the brand
  • Stock control
  • Pricing control
  • Less listing and transaction fees
  • Excellent way to test the local demand for your products
  • Research opportunity for customer behaviour

MULTI-CHANNEL INTEGRATION

  • Multi channel integrators, Integration partner
  • Order management system
    • Channeladvisor platform – very expensive
    • Anatwine – fashion only
    • Linnworks – order management
    • Pentagon interactive – SE Asian market

MEMBER’S FLASH SALE SITES

  • Have bad rep in the UK
  • Work very well on many other countries
  • You can put your products on different country sites for it not to affect UK
  • Subscription models (Printer – ink model)

WHOLESALE

  • B2B e-marketplaces
    • Alibaba
  • Directories
  • Product Listing
  • Niche or procurement platforms
    • Product feed, API, EDI