SEIZING OPPORTUNITIES OVERSEAS
INTERNATIONAL SELLING MADE EASY SPONSORED BY
Contents 03 05 07 10 12 16 18 20 23 26 28
A big hello from Webinterpret Introduction Overseas trade in numbers What they are saying about the British opportunity How to be an effective overseas seller Resources that help e-commerce businesses export Tips to take advantage of international trade How to boost international sales on eBay Selling in the US and Australia Opening up Brazil and Russia with Webinterpret Conclusion
01
A big hello from Webinterpret
01 A big hello from Webinterpret
HeLLO!
Dear readers, As you probably know, online Cross Border Trade is becoming more and more of a necessity. Indeed, year-over-year growth in the UK is decreasing while at the same time the number of online sellers is growing. On the other hand, online Cross Border Trade is set to increase fivefold by 2018. To be competitive in today’s global market, professional sellers have to look internationally. We decided to write an ebook in order to provide all retailers with the relevant tips and guidelines to help facilitate international trade. All of the information is based on our profound understanding and involvement in international sales coupled with our long-term experience in making localised international ecommerce available to everyone. It was a great pleasure to write this ebook and I believe it will meet the expectations of anyone who is selling internationally and wishes to grow their business! Wishing you a pleasant read,
Patrick Smarzynski
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02
Introduction
02 Introduction
International selling presents a huge opportunity to develop business, find new customers, increase global exposure to product lines and, importantly, develop new revenue streams.
Services including Amazon, eBay and Rakuten have provided retail businesses with a channel to the global market place and a great opportunity to grow businesses internationally without significant risk But barriers remain to international trade. Sellers must understand the unique DNA of each territory in which they want to sell and, most importantly, the languages spoken by people in each target market. Webinterpret is a specialist solution that helps facilitate cross-border trade. Its core mission is to make international ecommerce accessible to all businesses. This ebook addresses some of the key modern day issues facing UK ecommerce businesses and aims to provide answers to some of the biggest problems associated with selling overseas.
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03
Overseas trade in numbers
03 Overseas trade in numbers
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03 Overseas trade in numbers
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04
What they are saying about the British opportunity
04 What they are saying about the British opportunity
“Over the next decade, online retail will become increasingly international. This represents a great opportunity for British retailers, by providing new ways to grow and expand. “At the same time, international expansion poses many challenges and will require retailers to master new capabilities and complexities. “As a market matures, and new pockets of demand emerge, localisation will be crucial – from tailoring the range on offer, to ensuring that delivery and payment methods work for each market.”
Anita Balchandani, Partner, OC&C Strategy Consultants
“The opportunity for UK consumer brands to export is huge. Today, the most effective route to new markets is through online shopping platforms. “The rapidly growing Chinese middle class are turning to digital malls to satisfy their desire for luxury, high quality goods, with British brands appearing high on their shopping lists.”
Laura Faulkner, Consumer and Retail Global Lead at UK Trade & investment
“The UK is the world’s second biggest online retail exporter, beaten only by the USA. These new BRC-Google figures show UK retailers are investing heavily in international online experiences, localised websites and faster delivery times to drive exports.”
Helen Dickinson, Director General, British Retail Consortium (BRC)
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05
How to be an effective overseas seller
05 How to be an effective overseas seller
Cross-border trade (CBT) is no longer the domain of major international corporates. Small businesses and even sole traders are increasingly including CBT as a cornerstone of their sales strategies Marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay and Rakuten have opened up access to international customers, and businesses throughout the UK have taken advantage. But people branching out into international markets should understand the differences between strategies for grabbing market share in domestic and cross-border regions. To help, keep in mind the ‘three Cs’ of best practice when positioning your products for sales overseas:
Comprehension To fully capture the potential for overseas sales, you must become an active cross-border trader. That means posting translated and localised product listing to international marketplaces. It also means communicating with customers in their mother tongue. The point of this is to give your product listings the same exposure as local listings and providing the same (or better) customer service than native businesses can offer. Fail to do this and you rely on foreign buyers being able to read and correspond in English – which of course limits your audience dramatically.
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05 How to be an effective overseas seller
Competence Retail businesses must have the right tools and partnerships in place to succeed in the international marketplace. With new territory comes new obstacles and only by becoming an expert in the trappings of overseas trade can sellers expect to make sales. It’s okay to consult secondary sources of information and conduct online research, but for real insight it’s important to speak one-on-one with people who can offer specialised, first-hand knowledge of sectors and segments you hope to enter.
Confidence With the right information and appropriate tools, online sellers should feel confident in their international sales strategies. Success breeds confidence and consulting with foreign marketplace experts can make all the difference when developing an effective, scalable and personalized international selling strategy. Webinterpret is the leading all-in-one solution. It is a cloud platform offering full international listing consultation and management: • A focused CBT strategy for your business • Clear metrics to measure your success • A substantial portion of your overall revenue is generated from CBT • The ability to scale your inventory in a variety of international markets
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05 How to be an effective overseas seller
The Rakuten opportunity The worldwide ecommerce industry is increasing rapidly, particularly in Asia where each country’s ecommerce growth rate correlates with their existing infrastructure and readiness. Rakuten is an electronic commerce and Internet company based in Tokyo, Japan, which is expanding massively in this environment. Its B2B2C ecommerce platform Rakuten Ichiba is the largest ecommerce site in Japan and among the world’s largest by sales. Rakuten Ichiba is transforming local ecommerce by embedding the domestic market with the global ecommerce platform Rakuten Merchant System Global (RMSG), and as such removing boundaries throughout the global market. Rakuten’s ecommerce business is in thirteen countries around the world, including Indonesia, Taiwan, Malaysia and Thailand with service in Singapore planned to start soon. Malaysia, Indonesia and Spain have already started to use RMSG with Thailand moving to the system soon too. Rakuten has 52,000 merchants in Japan and 87,000 merchants globally. Currently among the top four global ecommerce sites, Rakuten is aiming to be the number one globally by 2020. Rakuten’s innovative ecommerce business is a great opportunity to expand international sales revenue. If you would like to take advantage of it register your interest here.
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06
Resources that help e-commerce businesses export
06 Resources that help e-commerce businesses export
UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) UKTI is a government department that works with UK business to help them achieve success in overseas markets, as well as to encourage top foreign businesses to partner with the UK. It has a mine of online resources, including country guides, tax calculators and hundreds of guides to help inform would-be exporters. For bigger businesses it also partners with private sector entities to host trade missions to popular overseas markets.
Open to Export Open to Export is a social network for exporters who can come together and help each other achieve expansion plans abroad. As well as access to a large online community, the site offers advice, webinars and useful contacts to help get businesses going.
British Library Business and IP Centre (BIPC) The BIPC is part of the British Library dedicated to helping business start-up, get established and grow. It stages events that are inspiring and informative and it holds a large trove of information useful to UK exporters. This includes information on protecting brands abroad, innovating to increase sales and the legal implications of selling or setting up shop overseas.
Institute of Export (IoE) The IoE is a professional membership body offering formal qualifications in doing business abroad, including a Certificate in International Trade and Advanced Certificate in International Trade. These certificates are designed to develop exporters’ skills base, as well as knowledge and understanding of global business, online and offline.
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07
Tips to take advantage of international trade
08 Tips to take advantage of international trade
Free shipping One thing that puts off international customers from pressing the ‘buy’ button is high shipping costs. By including a variety of shipping options at different prices points, you will convert more browsers to active buyers. Free shipping, for example, can increase sales by up to 30 per cent. [See infographic in next chapter].
How you can lower postage costs • Air delivery is expensive, use it sparingly • Monitor delivery charges for parcel weights and sizes • Use rewarvd credit cards to pay for shipping • Shop around using a freight brokers such as Freightquote.com or FreightCenter.com • Consider outsourcing your fulfilment to a specialist company • Join a trade organisation to get group discounts
Removing VAT VAT only applies on sales made within the EU. By selling to customers beyond EU territories you can effectively reduce the cost of your item by the prevailing VAT rate – currently 20 per cent. It’s a significant saving for you and your international customers.
Listing optimisation There are many considerations to take into account when listing items for customers in foreign countries. To optimise your listings, it’s essential you take the following steps: • Translate the listing title taking into account popular local keywords • Remember that category structures are different in different marketplace sites • Price your product in foreign currency, prices must reflect changing exchange rates • Increase prices to account for currency conversion fees • Adjust shipping options so they are relevant to the country • Professional translation of description is essential in some countries – notably in France • Auto-translation software is insufficient as a communication tool • You must find ways to communicate with customers in their language
For proven tips that have already helped online retailers in optimising their sales.
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08 How to boost international sales on eBay
10 How to boost international sales on eBay
eBay is one of the best conduits to successful international sales, but it’s not just a case lumping your products onto international eBay sites and hoping for the best To maximise your potential cross border sales, you must become an active seller and make all the necessary changes that will appeal to international customers.
Think local A localised listing is a listing that is modified to contain the correct title keywords in the correct language, with the correct currency, postage information and category structure. It helps foreign buyers find your items on their local eBay site when they search in their native language or filter their results by category.
Consider the fees Publishing the same items on multiple foreign eBay sites means that you will incur additional eBay insertion fees. However, this extra cost can be factored into the price of the item and, as eBay selling fees differ from eBay site to eBay site, you may even increase your margin.
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10 How to boost international sales on eBay
Language gap Language is a major part of the localisation process. You must write titles in relevant languages using the correct keywords, making the currency conversions, find the right categories and dealing with customers in foreign languages.
Synchronising stock Having to manage stock synchronisation between each of your foreign listings, is a chore, but it is essential to a successful business. Remember that if your stock level decreases or you change the description or price of an item, these changes need to be made across all of the individual eBay sites where that item appears; otherwise you run the risk of receiving negative feedback
National sensitivities You also have to know the specific policy for each eBay site in order to avoid listing an item that may be forbidden in a certain country.
For proven tips that have already helped online retailers in optimising their sales.
Sign up for a free webinar
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09 Selling in the US and Australia
11 Listing in the US, Australia
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11 Listing in the US, Australia
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10 Opening up Brazil and Russia with Webinterpret
12 Opening up Brazil and Russia with Webinterpret
Emerging markets are adding to the international revenue that Webinterpret created for our clients By creating active listings on ebay.com, we will open your inventory to Brazil and Russia with added customs protection from eBay. Russia and Brazil are currently two of the world’s hottest e-commerce markets with more Brazilian and Russian consumers are discovering eBay as a source for selection and value. In 2012, Russian shoppers generated over $400 million in revenue for eBay sellers. By listing on ebay.com and including Russia and Brazil to your shipping destinations, eBay will show this specified inventory to Brazilian and Russian buyers. In Russia, eBay also translates your listings into the Russian language and currency. eBay knows that doing business in emerging markets carries some risk, so there are added protections in place when shipping your inventory to Russia and Brazil. If a Brazilian or Russian buyer leaves negative or neutral feedback or ratings due to customs delays, eBay will remove all feedback if you resolve the issue promptly with the buyer.
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11 Conclusion
13 Conclusion
Without a doubt ecommerce has a great impact on businesses since it has become a huge part of how online trade functions. We understand its great importance and expanding influence. We made it the priority of our work to understand our customer’s needs and challenges so that they can easily increase their businesses potential to sell internationally. And we are proud to be a leading company able to provide our customers with far more than just basic services. We deliver innovative selling tools that help thousands to successfully sell abroad. We hope that this ebook will give you the taste to work with us in the near future if you aim to differentiate from the competition and boost international sales! If you have feedback on this ebook, or are would like to get in touch, do not hesitate to send an email to: support@webinterpret.com Also, if you’d like to try our service, simply click Set Up Your Account.
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