International Sales eBook

Bringing Your Online Store International

Jared P Shaner

About The Author

A student of the game who believes there are no limits to learning nor humility. I absolutely love staying on top of the emerging trends and technologies for my clients and learning from those far wiser than myself.

Ohh and I’m a Makers Mark Ambassador so it’s fair to say I love me some bourbon and the fine smell of mahagony

www.linkedin.com/in/jaredshaner/

About Plum TreeThe Plum Tree Group is an Interactive Marketing and Technology firm, we work to implement enterprise level eCommerce solutions leveraging Magento Commerce.

@Jaredism

plumtreegroup.net

[email protected]

Expanding Your Business Overseas

Selling Your Products in International Markets

I will start this article with one simple principle, Don’t Let Selling Internationally Scare You! Many online retailers choose not to expand their business to international markets for no reason other than pure fear. The reality is that with proper planning and precaution the opportunity of taking your business international can be truly rewarding in respect to increasing sales and brand exposure. In the course of the ebook I will review three of the most crucial aspects of international expansion that our agency has seen as the biggest points of focus for brands large, and small, that have found success and ease in their transition into selling internationally.

Speaking In Native TongueHandling Translation

There needs to be a major focus on making sure that there are proper precautions taken to ensure a successful translation of a company’s current site is reached. The reality is that despite great advances in technology associated with this process, this is one of the areas left within the ecommerce technology space that should still maintain a level of human touch.

Through our experiences with assisting successful international business expand into foreign nations we have found there are at least three crucial pieces in insuring a successful translation process is achieved.

Speaking In Native TongueHandling Translation

1) Pre-translation glossary development

The following three practices can be applied to the translation process and any and all ecommerce platforms. Obviously there are other options and crucial pieces to the puzzle but if focus is given to these aspects the opportunity to success greatly increases.

Many clients have linguistic resources available to them, and it can be very beneficial for them to work together with your translation partner’s linguistic teams in the early stages of a translation project. Glossary development involves providing a first round of translation on selected key words and phrases extracted from the content to be translated. Since linguistic choices can be highly preferential, it is helpful to agree upon the translated terms to be used up-front, prior to the actual translation of the full content.

Speaking In Native TongueHandling Translation

2) In-country mother-tongue translators, editors and proofreaders working with translation technologyAlthough there are many very capable translators based in the US. For the best results we have found that the best logic is to take advantage of the translators based in the country for which the translation is intended. This is due to the fact they are more in the loop in respect to local verbiage trends and lingo that may not be standard.

Speaking In Native TongueHandling Translation

3) Post-translation on-line Quality Assurance prior to site launch

Just as with the coding of the original site, it is crucial to go back at the completion of the project and do a thorough audit and run quality assurance on the translations.

Translations should also be checked to see how they display in the website’s CMS or other environments.

Getting The PackageHandling Distribution

Shipping is usually regarded as one of the biggest headaches in respect to taking one’s business international. This is usually for two reasons:

Shipping Costs

• They are high….• There are usually hidden

costs for the customer that they might have not anticipated• Duty fees, import

taxes, etc

Quality of Other Countries’ Postal Service

• China has horrible local postal service

• Depending on customer country, theres not always a best choice

• Example: UPS is better than Fedex for certain types of packages

Getting The PackageTips For Success

There are a number of technology solutions on the market today that can help to streamline and take the worry and work out of shipping overseas. International retailers should take full advantage of leveraging these resources such as automated international shipping and duty calculators. In addition, there are a couple more considerations that can make for smooth sailing with international shipping.Choose Products Wisely

Focus on products that are:• Small• Light• Easy to ship

There are some products that are just inefficient to try to sell internationally due to the fact that the shipping costs are prohibitive

Getting The PackageTips For Success

Understand Country-specific Regulations and Requirements

Some countries have very strict and at times unusual rules regarding specific shipping regulations and requirements. Retailers should always check such constraints when deciding to expand to internationally to specific countries.

Some are obvious .. Most places don’t allow grenade shipments!

However, some countries have more out of the box and uncommon restrictions such as ….

Vietnam where shipping calendars from foreign nations is illegal!

Getting The PackageTips For Success

Target Specific Countries

Companies should have a focus on a small select group of countries to target first and then proceed to expand from there.

There are certain countries that are more accessible depending on where the original business was set up. For example, US based business can more easily ship to Canada and Mexico then Guatemala.

Getting The PackageTips For Success

Know What the Shipping Costs

When a U.S based retailer ships a t-shirt from New York to Boston, there is a single shipping rate. But send that same t-shirt across a border and a whole new set of duties and taxes apply. Understanding the total cost of sending an order internationally is referred to as the “landed cost” and it is important that retailers understand this cost before sending an order

Needless to say, if a customer is hit by an extra $20 duty charge upon delivery they could be less than pleased and you might even end up stuck with the lost order and freight costs. Luckily almost all of the major carriers offer services that will calculate these costs and input directly into your current ecommerce platform

Getting The PackageTips For Success

Use Fulfillment Services

If you would just like to all but banish all the stresses that causes the need for some of the tips I provides, simply hire a fulfillment service Shipwire or many others to manage international orders.

In most cases, the retailer will pay a flat fee per order and the fulfillment service will manage packing, labeling, shipping, and monitor all of those pesky rules and regulations