Five Considerations When Taking eCommerce Brands Global
For any new company looking to succeed in this age of virtual trade, finding ways to stand out from the rest of the pack will be integral to building a successful brand, especially on the global stage.
Adapting your branding to unique audiences should be your first consideration when launching products in foreign markets. This may include researching local cultures and understanding the language and any symbolism locals may place with certain names, packaging or colors.
American beauty product and skincare company Estée Lauder learned this lesson when it launched a project in Germany without realizing that the product’s name was also slang for manure, leading to disappointing sales as consumers stayed away from the product.
Understand all the international taxes, fees and duties involved in launching projects in foreign markets to keep your company in line with international laws. Consider all the tariffs, value-added taxes, customs, shipping taxes, and export and import fees in the countries you wish to trade in as each nation has varying fees, taxes and tariffs.
Gaining a good understanding of international tax laws will help you predict when your products will reach the customers and allow you to budget for shipping and deliveries.
Investing in website readability will help make your content more accessible to a wider market, especially if you plan on launching in markets with different languages.
A poll of customers from close to 30 countries revealed that around 40% of consumers simply won’t shop on e-commerce websites that aren’t in their native language, meaning you miss out on close to one-half of the total market if you do not make your content locally accessible.
Geolocation and automatic translation tools can help you translate your website to other languages based on customer location. Customers can also choose their preferred language when they first access the site or you can go a step further and hire writers to produce copy for your business in different languages.
Provide different payment options for customers. As customers in different countries will likely use different payment systems, limiting your online shop to just one or two payment options will most likely limit your market.
For instance, customers in the Asia Pacific market use digital wallets for 69% of their online purchases while transactions in Europe are five times more likely to involve buy-now-pay-later services compared to the Middle Eastern or Asian market.
You should also invest in software that provides prices in local currencies instead of the dollar to eliminate the need for currency conversions and make the shopping experience easier.
Track your logistics and shipping to ensure your customers get their products safely and on time.
One of the biggest pros of purchasing products online is the convenience it offers, allowing customers to buy products virtually and receive them at their doorsteps a few days later with little hassle.
To achieve global brand status, you will have to consider how to ship your products to international buyers, including the type of transportation and carriers you will use, and how you will charge customers for international shipping You can invest in reliable carriers with shipping insurance to protect your products while they are in route or hire good third-party logistics firms to handle international shipments on your behalf.
For companies such as NextPlat Corp. (NASDAQ: NXPL) (NASDAQ: NXPLW) that are involved in the healthcare e-commerce space, the need to study and tweak offerings to specific international markets is even greater given how medicines are highly regulated in order to protect the consumers of those healthcare products.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to NextPlat Corp. (NASDAQ: NXPL) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/NXPL
Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the BioMedWire website applicable to all content provided by BMW, wherever published or re-published: http://BMW.fm/Disclaimer
For any new company looking to succeed in this age of virtual trade, finding ways to stand out from the rest of the pack will be integral to building a successful brand, especially on the global stage.
Adapting your branding to unique audiences should be your first consideration when launching products in foreign markets. This may include researching local cultures and understanding the language and any symbolism locals may place with certain names, packaging or colors.
American beauty product and skincare company Estée Lauder learned this lesson when it launched a project in Germany without realizing that the product’s name was also slang for manure, leading to disappointing sales as consumers stayed away from the product.
Understand all the international taxes, fees and duties involved in launching projects in foreign markets to keep your company in line with international laws. Consider all the tariffs, value-added taxes, customs, shipping taxes, and export and import fees in the countries you wish to trade in as each nation has varying fees, taxes and tariffs.
Gaining a good understanding of international tax laws will help you predict when your products will reach the customers and allow you to budget for shipping and deliveries.
Investing in website readability will help make your content more accessible to a wider market, especially if you plan on launching in markets with different languages.
A poll of customers from close to 30 countries revealed that around 40% of consumers simply won’t shop on e-commerce websites that aren’t in their native language, meaning you miss out on close to one-half of the total market if you do not make your content locally accessible.
Geolocation and automatic translation tools can help you translate your website to other languages based on customer location. Customers can also choose their preferred language when they first access the site or you can go a step further and hire writers to produce copy for your business in different languages.
Provide different payment options for customers. As customers in different countries will likely use different payment systems, limiting your online shop to just one or two payment options will most likely limit your market.
For instance, customers in the Asia Pacific market use digital wallets for 69% of their online purchases while transactions in Europe are five times more likely to involve buy-now-pay-later services compared to the Middle Eastern or Asian market.
You should also invest in software that provides prices in local currencies instead of the dollar to eliminate the need for currency conversions and make the shopping experience easier.
Track your logistics and shipping to ensure your customers get their products safely and on time.
One of the biggest pros of purchasing products online is the convenience it offers, allowing customers to buy products virtually and receive them at their doorsteps a few days later with little hassle.
To achieve global brand status, you will have to consider how to ship your products to international buyers, including the type of transportation and carriers you will use, and how you will charge customers for international shipping You can invest in reliable carriers with shipping insurance to protect your products while they are in route or hire good third-party logistics firms to handle international shipments on your behalf.
For companies such as NextPlat Corp. (NASDAQ: NXPL) (NASDAQ: NXPLW) that are involved in the healthcare e-commerce space, the need to study and tweak offerings to specific international markets is even greater given how medicines are highly regulated in order to protect the consumers of those healthcare products.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to NextPlat Corp. (NASDAQ: NXPL) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/NXPL
Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the BioMedWire website applicable to all content provided by BMW, wherever published or re-published: http://BMW.fm/Disclaimer
