International or global eCommerce refers to businesses selling goods through online channels to buyers everywhere in the world. As internet availability and the use of digital tools increases worldwide, global eCommerce is becoming easier to penetrate both for traditional brick-and-mortar stores and online-only platforms alike.
In this guide, we’ll explore everything you need to know about international eCommerce, including its benefits, strategies, and key considerations.
Table of Contents
What Are the Benefits of Global eCommerce?
When executed correctly, international online retail offers several benefits for both your business and your customers. Your business can benefit from:
- A larger customer base: Going international also means expanding into new markets and opening up new opportunities to attract more customers.
- Better brand visibility: Establishing your presence in multiple countries allows your target audiences to become more familiar with your services and products. This boosts brand awareness and trust, which often leads to increased sales.
- Exploring new markets: As mentioned above, testing a new market digitally provides valuable insights on whether you should open a physical store. These markets can also reveal demand for the development of new products, allowing you to bridge gaps between your offerings.
On the other hand, your customers can benefit from:
- Increased product variety: Global eCommerce offers your customers a broader selection of products. They can access services and products that may be unavailable locally, providing them with more choices and exclusive options.
- Improved global communication: A solid international eCommerce strategy enables better communication between your consumers and your business, helping the latter gain more trust and international brand recognition, while customers receive a better shopping experience.
Key Considerations Before Expanding Globally
Expanding internationally is a considerable financial investment, requiring both time and resources to establish a global eCommerce presence. Before making this move, it’s important to carefully evaluate your readiness. Retailers, logistics teams, and marketers alike should ensure that the timing and infrastructure are in place.
If you’re planning to go international, consider these four questions to assess your readiness:
- Do I have the staff to go international?
- Do I have logistics and is there a demand?
- Can I handle international regulations?
- How will I expand my business?
1. Do I Have the Staff To Go International?
Assess whether you have the human and financial resources to go global first. Go over your current financial situation and closely examine the changes you need to make in your workflows and marketing approach to go global.
Additionally, your current employees should either have prior experience with global eCommerce or should at least be willing to learn the trade. If you see that skills are lacking, consider hiring new staff and shifting some of your existing staff into domestic-only operations.
Regarding finances, creating a separate global marketing budget from your domestic resources can be a great idea, but this will be highly dependent on current market conditions and your overall growth strategy.
2. Do I Have Logistics and Is There a Demand?
Before expanding internationally, it’s crucial to assess both the demand for your products and your logistics capabilities. Tools like search engine optimization (SEO) and eCommerce analytics can help you understand how often customers search for and buy your products, as well as gauge the current level of foreign traffic to your platform.
Consider whether entering new markets will require adjustments to your supply chain. Will you need to increase inventory for specific products to meet the demand? Analyze your average order values across different regions, as these can be strong indicators of market potential and necessary changes. Additionally, review international eCommerce data to identify the types of products that are most popular with your target market.
3. Can I Navigate International Regulations?
Going international may seem straightforward from a digital perspective, but it involves dealing with bureaucracy. First, you'll have to think about cross-border data protection and privacy laws such as GDPR, CCPA, and other data localization laws. There are also duty and tax regulations like customs, VAT, and US sales taxes.
Consumer protection laws, intellectual property laws, currency and payment regulations, shipping regulations, specific consumer rights, and even local dispute resolution regulations should be taken into account and addressed before going global to avoid fines, legal disputes, or damage to your brand’s reputation.
For example, certain countries regulate chemically based products like skincare and beauty solutions differently. Some regions may ban specific ingredients or require different packaging labels that highlight certain product characteristics or ingredients.
4. How Will I Expand My Business?
To plan a successful international expansion, first, determine the scope of your growth. Will you enter new markets purely through digital channels, or do you aim to open brick-and-mortar locations? Alternatively, a hybrid approach may be more suitable, combining eCommerce with select retail locations.
Clearly defining your expansion strategy will help you tailor your website design, software needs, and logistical support accordingly. The better you manage to define your company’s needs and goals, the better your chances are of succeeding.
International eCommerce Strategies
Expanding your eCommerce business globally requires methodical planning and tailored strategies for each region and country. While having a website may give your brand international visibility, driving growth and success from cross-border eCommerce takes more than just a digital presence.
To succeed, customize your marketing strategies, sales processes, and customer services to address the needs of individual markets. Here are some effective strategies to consider:
- Localize and translate everything
- Optimize payments and pricing
- Tailor customer service
- Streamline logistics
1. Localize and Translate Everything
Translation means what it implies: it converts written text into the language of your target language. Localization, in the sense of eCommerce, means a lot more. It involves adapting your assets to align with the preferences of the local market, including logos, color schemes, websites, images, and other non-linguistic elements that may affect sales.
For true localization, you’ll need to customize your payment and shipping methods to meet the local market — USPS isn't available everywhere. It’s advisable to ensure that prices, dates, and time zones are formatted correctly.
Even basic details like postal codes vary by country. In China, they use numeric codes, while the UK has alphanumeric postal codes.
Your content will need to be localized too, reflecting the spirit of your target market’s language and cultural traditions. This is particularly important if you are planning to run sales and promotions, as shopping holidays differ by country. Not everyone celebrates Black Friday or Cyber Monday. For instance, Diwali has a similar shopping effect in India, while Brazil shops for Valentine’s Day gifts on June 12.
2. Optimize Payments and Pricing
In 2023, mobile wallets were the most popular global payment method, but credit cards remain prevalent as well.
Before entering a new region, closely examine the local payment preferences and habits. For instance, the average American holds 3.84 credit cards, making this the dominant payment method in the U.S. In contrast, 89% of the Kenyan population still used cash in 2023, though the trend is slowly declining.
Determining the right payment options for each market can be difficult. While you should focus on providing as many payment options for your buyers as possible, A/B testing can help you choose the best route to take for each market.
On that note, you can also test the number of options you choose to display at the same time, as too many or few choices may also lead to lowered checkout conversion rates.
Currency conversion is another key factor. Fluctuations in exchange values can impact your pricing strategy and profitability. To avoid unexpected price changes for customers, it’s best to sell products at fixed prices to ensure that customers don’t pay more after you ship the item. However, sticking solely to USD can lead to decreased conversion rates and limit sales potential.
In the U.S., shoppers are aware that sticker prices don’t include taxes and are used to paying more at checkouts. However, in many other countries, like Germany, taxes are already included in the listed price. Adding taxes at checkout in these markets may backfire, frustrate customers, and lead to abandoned carts, as it deviates from their usual shopping experience.
3. Enhance Customer Service
Managing exchanges, refunds, and returns becomes more complex in international eCommerce due to logistics and varying consumer expectations. In the U.S., shoppers often expect generous return policies, while in countries like France, most purchases are considered final. As such, tailor your return policies based on regional preferences and regulations, and keep them straightforward.
When it comes to customer support, outsourcing your services to a local provider can be a good solution. However, make sure to consider local communication preferences. Does your target market prefer phone support, email, or live chat? Are they more comfortable speaking with a real person, or would they rather use chatbots? Understanding these nuances helps you provide a better customer experience.
4. Streamline Logistics
International shipping can be tricky, and in many cases, the retailer has limited control over the associated costs and timelines. For instance, shipping to remote areas in Canada like Nunavut and Yukon may take longer and cost more, while narrow streets in cities like Paris and Rome can slow down delivery in France and Italy.
It’s important to offer your customers multiple shipping options to suit their preferred delivery method, but you should be prepared for potential logistical challenges.
Shipping and logistics were among the top hurdles for global eCommerce in 2020, with 44.5% of respondents citing customs as their biggest challenge, 27% highlighted issues with delivery tracking, and 34.5% pointed to difficulties in managing delivery expectations.
To tackle these challenges, experts suggest implementing advanced technologies like multi-carrier software, which streamline logistics management and improve efficiency. Additionally, consider whether a local presence, such as a brick-and-mortar store or a representative in your target region, could help overcome these logistical issues more easily.
Additional Considerations for International eCommerce
There are several other factors to consider and map out before expanding your eCommerce business cross-border, including:
1. Site Localization
In specific cases, it may be beneficial to adjust your website’s domain to cater to specific markets. While a .com domain is often sufficient, using country-specific domains (like .co.uk, .ca, or .de) can help improve search engine rankings and increase visibility in those regions.
Additionally, having a fully localized site, complete with translated product descriptions, navigation, return, and privacy policies, not only boosts your SEO but also enhances communication with your customers.
2. Data Security Considerations
You should also ensure that your site is compliant with all security regulations and laws. For instance, in the European Union, the GDPR requires you to obtain explicit consent from users before using cookies. Similarly, in Canada, users must give consent before their data can be gathered.
Payment security is another key area of concern. Make sure your SSL certificates are up to date and that you’re using secure, trusted payment gateways. It’s also advisable to only collect the minimum amount of personal information required for transactions.
3. Technology
Managing an international eCommerce operation can be complex and time-consuming. To streamline your processes, assess areas of your international strategy and look at the operations and processes that can be automated. Software can take over duty, tax, and VAT calculations, as well as assist with logistics, pricing, and product descriptions.
You should also consider how these new platforms will integrate with the tools you currently use. Partnering with the right development team can help you connect to all the necessary platforms and may even recommend a custom solution to cater to your brand’s individual needs.
4. Budgeting
As mentioned earlier, if you’re planning to expand globally, you should create a separate budget for your global operations. To create said budget, research market performance in the target country, estimate marketing and customer acquisition costs, consider logistics and align all of these with your larger sales goals. Research and budgeting can be an overwhelming task, but luckily, you can always consult an expert to help you with it.
5. Continuous Adjustments
Just like your local sales and marketing strategy, your international processes should be continuously adjusted to meet the changes in an ever-shifting digital landscape. A/B testing and other testing methods are essential for staying ahead of the competition in each target region, allowing you to optimize your site and provide the best user experience in every market.
It’s vital to not only focus on what works for your brand but also to consider larger market trends and preferences, too.
Finishing Thoughts on International eCommerce
Expanding your operations at the cross-border stage requires a lot of effort, planning, research, and hard work. However, the international eCommerce landscape has heaps of potential, making entering underserved markets a worthwhile investment even for small retailers.
If you work with the right professionals who can help you address market demands, technological and logistical requirements, and legal compliance, you’ll be well on your way to running a successful international business.
Global eCommerce FAQs
1. Should I translate my website to the target market language?
Yes, having a fully translated website can help you better communicate your offers and values to your new audience, and avoid misunderstandings. Having available customer support in the country’s language can also improve the buyers’ relationship with your brand. Lastly, localized domains can improve local rankings too.
2. Can smaller merchants go global?
Yes, smaller merchants can be particularly successful if they leverage market vacuums left by larger competitors, where massive market gaps exist. Also, if you offer in-demand products at a competitive price in specific markets, you don’t necessarily need to be a large retailer to turn a profit.
3. Should each target country have its own marketing strategy?
While you don’t need to create new strategies for every market from scratch, you should try to localize your promotions. You must be aware of different shopping events, religious traditions, and cultural norms to build trust with your target audience.
