Five steps to international sales
- Jonathan Crossfield
- 30 March 2010
You may be an e-commerce giant in Broome, but what about Boston, Birmingham and Beijing? Setting up your website to cope with customers, wherever they are living or whatever language they speak, is not as hard as you think.
Check off the following five steps and your business could start trading in yen and drachmas as well as dollars.
1. Ensure your site is capable of taking payments in multiple currencies
Even though a credit card payment can be made in any currency around the world, customers still want to see your prices in terms that are relevant to them.
Chances are, your website is set up to display prices and process transactions in Australian dollars. But it doesn’t take much to add in multicurrency functionality. Give customers the opportunity to select their preferred currency and increase
international conversions.
2. Include accurate international shipping rates up front
Most customers will assume international shipping will transform a bargain into a mistake – unless you demonstrate otherwise. One of the biggest causes of shopping cart abandonment is discovering the total expense is higher than expected because
of a previously undeclared shipping amount.
Provide accurate and easy to interpret international shipping quotes in the front part of your site, perhaps with a link to a chart from each product page. And ensure those shipping quotes are definitely the best value options available. Don’t make
the mistake of only including international courier services or other expensive forms of delivery.
3. Make customer service and support easy, wherever the person may be
Not every customer can call your help line or fax through a sales enquiry if they are in different time zones, two oceans away. Make sure that a customer can easily lodge an enquiry even if they’re in Outer Mongolia and its 2am where you are.
Simple forms are the best way, but ensure you manage expectations by communicating an estimated response time. “Thank you for your enquiry. Our customer service team will be in touch within 24 hours to assist with your query,” is far better than
silence.
4. Talk their language
You don’t need to speak French to be able to sell your products in Paris when you have a multilingual website. Giving customers the opportunity to set their location and see your copy translated can make your offer truly universal.
5. Avoid parochialism
If you want your marketing message to be understood worldwide, it is best to avoid too much local knowledge. Sure, some things merely add an Australian flavour to your brand: saying g’day or holding an Australia Day promotion, for example. But too many in-jokes or obscure Aussie references can make your website seem impenetrable and irrelevant to others.
