5 Tips for Selling Overseas

Many small business owners consider expanding their business. Most often, this expansion plan includes opening new storefronts throughout the owner’s home state or even expanding to other major cities in the county. But, have you ever considered expanding your business globally? International ecommerce has grown over the last few years and is predicted to triple across the United States, United Kingdom, China, Brazil, and Australia by 2018. Here are five tips to help you expand your small business globally.

Reaching Global Consumers

Many business owners believe that global commerce is not in their wheelhouse simply because they cannot communicate with consumers in other countries easily and quickly. While direct mail marketing or local print advertising may not be an option for reaching global consumers, it is important to remember the great reach the Internet has. For example, sites like Etsy and eBay make it very easy to sell products internationally.

Make it Easy for Global Consumers to Pay You

Since most of the commerce you will be doing on the global scale will be over the Internet, it is important to give consumers in other countries an easy, secure way to pay for their orders. Seven out of ten online shoppers admit that fear of identity theft and fraud are their number one fears when shopping online. In order to make the ecommerce portion of your business successful, you will need to make consumers confident their credit card and account information is safe when using your online storefront.

Entice Global Consumers with Free Shipping

The cost of shipping internationally is one of the factors that drive consumers’ decisions to make purchases from businesses in other countries. Additionally, just about half of all consumers report that they are more likely to make purchases from another country when shipping is free. While it may seem simple to offer international consumers free shipping, it is important to remember the added costs associated with sending something across the globe including handling and customs. Include the cost of shipping in the overall price to make your items more appealing while also allowing you to cover actual shipping costs.

Understand Global Markets

Just like business owners do research to learn more about their local target markets, they may need to do additional research to learn about different consumer markets in other countries. There are a number of different tools available for business owners to tackle this challenge including PayPal’s PassPort service, which helps business owners explore cultures, common marketplaces, business practices, and other consumer preferences for a number of different countries.

Know Local Finance Regulations

Each country will vary on their policies regarding duties, taxes, custom regulations and other rules you will need to follow in order to do business on the global stage. Make sure to cover your bases and understand these local finance regulations for the countries you are looking to do business with. The United States Department of Commerce has resources available to help business owners understand the many requirements that they must meet in order to participate in international commerce.