Win with a global ecommerce strategy
The CEO of one of the most known ecommerce platforms said, “Ecommerce is not an industry, it’s a tactic.” He’s not wrong! Tactics undergird strategy. Get the ‘how’ of your ecommerce strategy right, and the rest will follow. Your business will be successful and expansion will no longer be a dream, but a sustainable reality with the potential to reap huge (global) rewards.
What is Global Ecommerce?
Put simply, global ecommerce is the process of selling products or services online across geopolitical to customers outside of the vendor’s country. In comparison with local ecommerce, in which a retailer only sells within its country of origin, global ecommerce allows merchants to expand into non-native markets and reach new customers. The sky is literally the limit.
Global Ecommerce – the Numbers
The statistics from Tidio and Statista supporting the undeniable potential which ecommerce is currently delivering and importantly, set to continue to deliver, are eye-watering:
- There are over 2.14 billion online shoppers in the world.
- 27% of the global population shop online.
- The global eCommerce market is predicted to exceed a staggering $8.1 trillion by 2026.
- 20% of all retail sales happen online. This figure is expected to reach 25% by 2025.
Global ecommerce experts recognise the benefits which strong global ecommerce solutions bring, resulting in achieving economies of scale and increasing your reach. Previous barriers to selling no longer exist and can be removed by using a healthy global ecommerce platform
as part of a global ecommerce solution.
Additional benefits of robust ecommerce strategy include:
A strengthened brand
An ecommerce strategy which is in line with your brand can enhance visitor perception, leading to greater visibility and trust, enabling your brand to hold and maintain a stronger market position than your competitors.
Greater customer retention rates
An ecommerce strategy has great potential to transform one-time buyers into repeat buyers.
A better understanding of your target audience
Your ecommerce strategy will enable you to capture data related to your target audience to inform your strategy and to increase your market share.
Boosted revenue
Exceptional online shopping experiences will create customer loyalty leading to increased revenue and a better bottom line.
If you don’t have a coherent ecommerce strategy to maximise the benefits of cross-border marketing and sales through digital pathways, it could be questionable whether your business will survive. So, how do you expand into markets which are just a click away?
The Ecommerce Roadmap for Success
The essential ingredients of a robust global ecommerce strategy include:
1. 1. Taking a (g)localized approach to your markets.
Glocalization is key. By delivering a marketing strategy which reaches global customers in a perceived localised and culturally relevant way, you can expect to see a potential five-fold increase in your ROI. Glocalization is the global ecommerce solution to the problem of accessing global markets without the cost. By ensuring that your website content is localised and by combining global knowledge with local perspective, your products appear to be produced and distributed by a local supplier and the shopping experience is culturally relevant, ending in a seamless check out process reflecting local currency and delivery options. (According to Big Commerce, 40% of shoppers will not purchase from a website if the content is in another language, so you need to do everything possible to avoid card abandonment, leading to a decrease in sales).
2. 2. Maintaining a logistics process which is efficient and meets local expectation, regardless of where your business is located.
Managing transportation, warehouse operations, orders and returns can be a headache if you’re not in the same country – or continent. You will need a reliable logistics and fulfillment partner to manage the following processes:
- Transportation logistics
- Warehouse management
- Picking
- Packing
- Delivery
- Returns
3. Using a robust Merchant of Record partner to oversee and navigate the menu of complex processes associated with cross-border selling.
Your Merchant of Record partner is a key link in the ecommerce chain, who will deliver the practical elements of your glocalized ecommerce strategy by managing and delivering your:
- International payment process
- Global tax activity
- Fraud management operation
- Foreign exchange system
4. Optimizing Your Ecommerce Website
It goes without saying that your website should be attractive and easy to navigate and contain original content. But it is also crucial to optimise your website for international markets so that search engines enable your customers to find you quickly and easily.
A key global ecommerce solution to enable you to deliver a successful ecommerce strategy is to partner with local SEO experts and use keyword research in different languages to adapt your website content and metadata accordingly. Local SEO experts can provide the insights into local search engine preferences and algorithms which your business needs. For example, Google is the preferred search engine in the United States, compared with Baidu in China, which offers higher ranking to sites with servers located in China, as well as sites with content written in Chinese languages.
5. Choose the Right Ecommerce Platform
An ecommerce platform comprises an integrated suite of functions required for the online front-end, customer-facing shopping experience and back-end processing. A good platform will facilitate point-of-sale transactions (with a secure payment gateway), inventory, customer support and the all-important analytic function.
Choosing the right global ecommerce platform is crucial to success and should be customer-centric (and therefore mobile-friendly), enabling you to maximise traffic and therefore income.
The platform needs to be scaled easily (to both capitalise on and enhance increased business) and deliver seamless integration with other ecommerce software. A secure platform is essential for customer trust and reputation and your platform should also be customizable to enable you to stand out from the crowd. And last but not least, choose a platform which suits your budget.
As global ecommerce experts, at ExpandNow, we enable you to reach new global customers by providing all the technology and expertise you need around your ecommerce strategy. ExpandNow delivers the complete global ecommerce solution to support your business expansion.