For Barney Willis, Managing Director of Managed Partners at We Are Pentagon, “if you aren’t selling internationally, you’re missing a trick”. That was the bottom line of his presentation at this year’s Payoneer London Forum, in which he laid out his top tips for cross-border trade.
In his talk, Mr. Willis touched on several topics, including the importance of dominating your local market, building a logistics infrastructure and why automation is critical to scaling up your business. Here, we’ll be going over the highlights of Mr. Willis’s talk. To watch his full presentation, click below:
The presentation started with an overview of cross-border trade and why it’s in every seller’s interests to take their business global. Notable points included:
According to Mr. Willis, the first step to branching out cross-border is to dominate your local market. Specifically, this means:
Doing so allows you to hone your business skills in familiar territory and streamline your store before expanding into unfamiliar territories. Once you’re ready to branch out, the following six tips will help you effectively scale up your store.
Logistics are inevitably more complex when you’re dealing with multiple territories. You must navigate between local postal systems and commercial carriers while juggling different handoffs. To deal with these new challenges, it’s important to:
A UPS survey found that 88% of online consumers check a store’s returns policy before making a purchase. If yours isn’t clear enough, many customers won’t buy from your store. You need a clear and simple policy that translates well to new locales but is not so lax that it opens you up to scams.
New laws and changes to existing regulations in the territories in which you operate are bound to come up. Think Brexit, so something like unclear jurisdictions – do product labeling laws and consumer rights go according to the customer’s country of residence or the seller’s? In short, make sure you’re up to date on new legislation and set up your contracts according to the laws of your local markets and cross-border territories.
Translate all product materials accurately while keeping aware of cultural nuances in each marketplace. Remember that three-quarters of people won’t purchase from a website that isn’t in their native language and 87% of non-fluent English speakers say they won’t buy from a site in English.
As well as translating to the relevant language, you need to adapt your brand to local shopping habits, user preferences, cultural and religious holidays, etc. Most marketplaces are happy to share their local promotional calendars and marketing plans.
You want to offer as many payment solutions as possible. Processing payments in-house, however, creates several challenges, including:
eCommerce crosses so many channels – mobile commerce, social selling, affiliate networks, marketplaces, and sales through search and direct webstore visits.
Many companies try to handle the practicalities of cross-border trade in-house. They bring in the tech they need, and it can work for a while until the business reaches a certain point, at which it becomes unscalable. It’s far better to bring in an expert to handle the tasks of setting up a cross-border store or marketplace, so you can focus on what you do best – making sales.