Covid-19 made our lives much more complex. But there is a silver lining to everything. The pandemic allowed online stores to rise more than ever as we got stuck at our homes. And we have all the reasons to believe that this tendency will stay with us because more people experienced the convenience of online shopping.
That’s why now is a great time to start your own e-commerce business. Considering how the Internet and technologies simplified everything, including deliveries and other processes related to working with customers from other countries, it’s logical to aim at offering worldwide delivery. While it’s not a very hard task to execute, there still are some nuances you need to remember. In this article, we will take a look at each of them to create a check-list that you could use as a guideline.
Languages differ
It’s okay to create an e-commerce website just in English. But if you can translate it and your ads to other languages, it will be a great boost for your traffic and sales. Sure, quite a lot of people can understand English at least on a basic level, and Google Translate that can translate the whole website instantly helps. But by translating your website and ads to other languages by yourself you will make sure nothing gets misunderstood by potential buyers.
Think of the countries you want to aim at and try to figure out if it will be better to offer them content in their native language. Sure, it will take time and money, but eventually, all the efforts will pay off. At first, you can focus on translating your communications. And later you can invest into translating the website.
Consider the distance
It’s possible to ship orders to virtually any spot on the globe. But you need to think about the point of view of your customers. Will the delivery be convenient and reasonable for them? Let’s say, you’re based in the US and you get an order from Australia or Russia, and you don’t sell any exclusive goods. Will customers want to wait for so long and pay quite a lot for the delivery if they could buy the same thing in their country?
So research the delivery terms and costs before announcing that you will ship to certain locations. Also, study local markets to see if customers from other countries will be interested in what you’re offering.
Study the local market
We’ve mentioned this nuance in the previous section, but it’s important enough for us to talk about it separately. Regardless of what you’re going to sell, research the current situation in countries you’re going to aim at. For example, you could think that your silk pillowcases will be in high demand everywhere since it’s not a very widely-spread product. But once you do your research, you might find out that there is a popular brand located somewhere in Europe that ships its silk pillowcases around the EU and to neighboring countries.
By doing such a study, you’ll see where your products actually can become popular. Thus, you’ll avoid wasting money and effort on promoting your goods in countries where customers are not interested in your offers.
Figure out local rules
Laws and taxes work similarly in most countries, but there still are some differences. Also, some governments implement absolutely unexpected laws — for instance, you can’t import collectible stamps to Canada. So see if there are any rules that could prevent your customers from receiving the products they’ve ordered from you. And research the taxes — sometimes they can get crazy enough for a buyer to spend on the delivery and taxes as much as they’ve spent on the purchase itself, if not even more.
This will once again help you minimize wasted resources. It’s better to just not ship to a certain country if the rules are too complex than worrying about the parcel and spending lots of time trying to help the customer.
Add more payment options
Sure, allowing customers to pay with any bank card is a versatile and convenient option. But what if they have to pay a fee that’s too large? Or it might be that they simply feel more comfortable using other payment methods. See which options are preferred in countries you want to ship your goods to. And remember that the payment methods you’re using in your location might be unavailable in other places. For example, PayPal, widely-used in western countries, is not allowed in some locations. The more payment options suited for customers from certain countries you offer, the higher are chances that they won’t abandon the cart at the checkout.
Research shipping methods
Shipping services very well understand the profit in serving international online stores. Therefore, they try to make it easy for sellers to figure out the rules and collaborate with them. So it won’t be a problem for you to research the terms and compare rates, speeds, and other details of the shipping process to choose the best options. Today major shipping services collaborate with local carriers, and in most cases, you won’t need to dive into the nuances of a specific country. But you still need to know as much as you can to support your customers when they need some help.
Remember about frauds
Different countries have different kinds of online frauds. So you need to think such a risk through. Implement fraud screening plugins and research if there are any original methods malefactors in your target locations use. And take your time to set up anti-fraud plugins so that they don’t flag genuine orders like fraud ones.
Make sure your hosting can handle the load
Even online stores that sell products just within one country can experience issues as the traffic exceeds the capabilities of the hosting. And when you offer international shipping, the load can become unpredictable high at some point. Try to forecast the highest possible traffic your website can get and choose the hosting option that will handle it. If it seems like a hard task, just contact us. We will research your business and offer you a VPS hosting or a dedicated server. Both options are highly scalable which means you’ll be able to reduce and expand resources as you like.
Moreover, hosting and servers by King Server are protected from most cyber threats. You can reinforce the security with our automated anti-DDoS system that will constantly monitor your traffic, detect suspicious activity, and prevent attacks. Then you can be sure your e-commerce website is always running, and your customers don’t experience any downtimes.
