Expanding your small on-line business to international sales
December 09, 2011
Guest Post by Colleen Hazelrigs
In my last post I introduced the concept of opening your on-line product sales to international customers. Let’s explore that in a little more detail.
With the internet the world has shrunk. People from every corner of the planet have access to your website and some of those 7 billion people would buy your product if they could. There is growing interest throughout the world to buy from the US because of the shrinking dollar and the lower cost of many items in the US. See this example of shoppers in Switzerland who buy from US stores, or this comparison of online prices in the US and Australia.
Some products available in the US are not even available in other countries. International shopping is growing and not likely to slow down in the foreseeable future.
So, how do you take advantage of that market with your own small, or not so small, online presence? How do you master the complexity of serving such a diverse customer base without putting your core business at risk? The answer is, partner with a package forwarder.
Package forwarders are in the business of serving global consumers. They have systems to deal with customs and duty taxes, and have negotiated the lowest rates with shippers, based on volume, that serve each country.
How would this work for your business?
Let’s say you make widgets. This widget is very useful and has become popular with your target customers. It turns out that there are target customers all over the world, people who find your widget useful. They contact you wanting to buy it.
Stating in your shipping policy that international shipping is available via package forwarding lets anyone browsing your website from outside the US know that they can buy from you. This is one of the first things global customers look for when shopping in the US. Letting them know early and up front that you can ship to them will whet their interest and keep them looking.
Your package forwarder will work with you to make sure the right information is added to your website that communicates to your customers the process to place an international order.
Your international customers will get a US address from your package forwarder. Then, the customer will place their order with you using their new US address. You simply treat the order as a domestic sale and shipment. The package forwarder will handle the international shipment and communication with the customer about that leg of the shipment.
Partnering with a package forwarder allows you to breathe a sigh a relief as you take advantage of international interest in your product and the new stream of revenue with little or no additional cost to your business. Your product can serve more people and your business can thrive like you knew it could when you envisioned and created it.
Photo used under Creative Commons SA/ND license from Tim Bunce on Flickr
The modern world is growing at a rapid pace. 30 years ago, no one even knew what the Internet was, and few people had access to a computer. In todays world the internet technology has revolutionised the way that we spend our time, from internet TV to internet shopping and on-line games. A lot of the shopping we do can be completed online and paid for from the comfort of our own home, and the choice of products and suppliers is endless, we can now place an order with a supplier on the internet, pay for it and have it delivered the next day, Next day parcel delivery from internet shopping has now become a way of life, and is taking over from the traditional high street, with no parking problems and no walking around in the rain,
With the internet has also come the demise of the "Yellow Pages" no longer do we look in the "Yellow Pages" for services or products, we just go to a search engine like "Google" enter the product or service we require and we get a list of may be 1,000,000 suppliers from all over the world, with each supplier providing us with prices, descriptions and images of the products and giving us a much wider range of choice than we would have had 30 years ago.
Posted by: Steve Ball | December 28, 2011 at 11:21 AM
True, true. I know several local businesses who use a package forwarding service to reach international customers. I have friends locally who use a company out of Utah called Goopping so that international customers can order their products online and have them forwarded to Australia or the UK.
Posted by: Maggie | December 19, 2011 at 02:01 PM
Another point you might consider is how people find your company website. Outside of the US, most people navigate to sites that end in their country code (i.e. sitename.de for Germany and sitename.fr for France). So if you want to target British customers, grab your company domain name in .co.uk as well as the .com you already own.
I work for a domain registrar (www.uniteddomains.com) and I see many clients who are in business purchase multiple extensions to better appeal to foreign customers and adapt to their browsing habits.
Posted by: Kate Hutchinson | December 15, 2011 at 03:42 PM