Selling products abroad is a great way to expand your business, increase profits and reach new customers. But before you dive in and start selling overseas, it’s important to understand the real cost of doing business abroad and to be able to find opportunities in your sector, just as the luxury sector found them in China.
There are many costs associated with selling products abroad that can easily add up if you don’t plan ahead. Let’s look at some of the most common costs of selling products overseas.
Shipping costs
One of the biggest costs of selling products abroad is shipping or freight. Depending on where you’re sending your product, you may have to pay for air or sea freight.
International shipping can be expensive due to customs fees, tariffs, port charges and so on, so make sure you factor them into your budget when planning your international sales strategy. And if you want your product to arrive safely and quickly at its final destination, you may need to pay more for insurance or special handling.
Higher product costs
When selling products abroad, there’s usually an inherent increase in product costs due to currency exchange rates and differences in manufacturing costs between countries.
This means your product may need to sell for more than it would in your domestic market for the company to remain profitable globally. Make sure these additional costs are factored into any projections you make about the profitability of international sales.
Taxes and duties
Different countries have different taxes and duties on buying and selling goods within their borders. It’s important to research these in advance to avoid unpleasant surprises when your product arrives in the destination country.
It’s also important to comply with each country’s laws regarding the taxes payable on imported products to avoid legal issues down the line.
How do you prepare your eCommerce to sell worldwide?
After a thorough assessment of the costs of expanding into new markets, we reach the key moment: adapting our eCommerce platform. To do this, we need to consider:
Backoffice
If you want to take your business worldwide, a good example is the LogiCommerce eCommerce platform, which lets you run a single store with multiple Storefronts linked to different sales channels in each country.
This makes better use of available resources and dramatically simplifies eCommerce management, so you can reach new markets without added complexity.
Content translation and adaptation
The key to a successful global sales strategy is properly adapting content to the local language. To maximize success, working with native translators ensures your products or services are presented in the best light, connecting with consumers and building trust. In addition, researching the most relevant keywords in the target market will help attract significant volumes of qualified traffic that can convert into sales.
Catalog review and adaptation
Since markets don’t share the same tastes and consumption habits, it’s essential to adapt your product offering to local particularities to build a successful business. Properly analyzing these preferences can potentially open up a whole new world of commercial success.
Currency
If you sell your products internationally, you must make sure you display prices in each country’s currency. In your eCommerce, you need to set rates in different currencies and fix rounding; you can also run specific promotions depending on the target market. This will help you identify commercially viable opportunities on a global scale.
Pricing
International pricing and promotion strategies offer an opportunity to optimize overall results, as they let you adjust rates and advertising activities for each individual market.
Payment methods
To cover every market, it’s vital to offer a wide variety of payment methods to meet different preferences and needs! Whatever the geographic location, it’s important to carefully study which methods work best in each country.
Customer service
To guarantee excellent service to our customers, we need highly qualified staff who speak the local language fluently and know all the company’s products and services well. This helps us deliver amazing shopping experiences.
Domain strategy
We’ve reached a critical decision point: will we use the same domain to sell our products around the world, or create local alternatives? Considering factors such as the eCommerce platform and the effort needed to rank them online, this choice could be decisive. LogiCommerce outlines different strategies and best practices for domain strategy and international SEO.
Logistics
To offer the best possible service, it’s crucial for businesses to adapt their features to the consumer trends of each country. For example, some places prefer order pickup, which gives customers more flexibility and convenience.
Online marketing strategy
To succeed in the international market, it’s essential to set a budget to achieve your goals, whether that’s attracting potential customers or increasing sales.
Selling products internationally can be an excellent way to grow your business, but it comes with a set of unique costs and considerations to keep in mind when planning an international sales strategy.
Understanding these costs up front will help ensure the success of any international venture, both financially and logistically. With careful planning and research, international sales may be exactly what your business needs.
