It’s not that hard to sell fashion items online locally. On the other hand, it is much harder to grow an online fashion store internationally. Once someone has a lot of success in their own area, it’s a given that they’ll want to look into expanding their business roots around the world. If you want to grow your fashion eCommerce business overseas, there are a few things you should know first.
For example, did you know that the number of people who buy things online will grow by more than a billion between 2014 and 2024? In the next ten years, this trend is likely to get even stronger. Profits will also go up in the same way.
Before moving to international eCommerce, the owner of an online clothing store needs to do a few things. The plan is mostly made up of three main points. They will help you learn more about your target market, set up shipping and payment methods, and find opportunities in the market.
Look into markets in other countries
No one should think about growing their online fashion business without first doing some research. Start with statistics to find the best market for your business. It’s very important to know how much people spend in each area and what their habits are. In other words, you need to learn more about each region, even in terms of its culture.
You might not know this yet, but you can do short research to learn more about a market. First, let’s use the Google Search Console for your store. Click “Performance” in the left column of your dashboard to find out where your customers come from. Then, in the filter area, set the date to “last 12 months.” Lastly, in the second info chart, choose “countries” instead of “queries,” which is what is already chosen. You can see how many people have clicked on your store and how many of those people found it through a search.
Now, Google Trends is a better way to find out more about a market. You can find out a lot about what is popular around the world right now. More importantly, you can see what people are reading about and the latest news and stories. Check which keywords have been looked up the most in the last 24 hours. There are a lot of things you can do with Google Trends. It can help you find keywords in more than one way, for example. But you can use it to do simple things, like find out what’s popular in the market you’re trying to reach.
But most importantly, you’ll need to figure out how big the market is, i.e. how many people in the targeted country use the Internet. Most of the time, combining these statistics with products that are popular turns out to be a winning strategy. But this is only the start. You can’t just focus your fashion eCommerce business on a great country and expect miracles to happen. First, you’ll need to do a few important things. Payments and shipping work the same way for a successful online store that sells to people all over the world.
Payments, shipping, and returns need to be set up.
If you want to sell overseas, make sure your online store is set up for international eCommerce. Each area has its own payment methods and service providers. Adding local payment options to your store will almost certainly help you sell more abroad.
Choosing the right ways to pay locally
If you want to break into new markets, you should change your business to fit the new market, not the other way around. Preparing for this will take some time, but it’s not something you haven’t done before.
It’s important to find out which payment methods buyers in each country prefer. For example, almost half of the people in the Netherlands use direct debit cards to pay online. On the other hand, German online shoppers prefer to pay by electronic invoice, PayPal, or credit card. In the end, you’ll need to set up the preferred payment method for the market, if it’s different from the ones you already use.
Remember to always choose a payment provider that has a good name and is known for making online payments safe. PayPal, Stripe, Square, Cayan, and so on are some of the most popular ways to pay. Any customer who wants to buy something on your site needs to know that their money won’t go to the wrong account or, worse, be stolen.
If you don’t do this, your store won’t be able to compete in the global eCommerce world. Payment gateways like PayPal are preferred by many shoppers because the payment process is easy, clear, and safe. However, in some countries, people are still hesitant and skeptical about PayPal.
Shipping and returns outside of the U.S.
Setting up options for international shipping is an important part of setting up. If you have a dropshipping fashion store, make sure your supplier ships all over the world and in record time. Customers should never wait, even if they have to pay more than usual. If you sell expensive items, try to balance your profit margins with the cost of shipping.
Before you move on to marketing, the last thing you should do in this section is let people know about your online fashion eCommerce store’s returns policy. Customers can only see it as a good thing if you tell them what their return options are based on where they live. It can also make customers more likely to trust you because they can see that you mean business. For instance, if you have been focusing on US countries up until now, you would need to change your return policy for European countries. When it comes to European laws and rules, business owners have to offer a 14-day return policy.
Marketing plans for international online shopping
When you start selling online in other countries, it’s a lot like starting from scratch. Your clothing store would be new, so you’d have to move quickly and aggressively to get into new markets. Make sure you have enough money to advertise it for at least a few months, or until some of the people you want to see or visit your store have seen or been there. Here are a few tips from experts on how to market your international eCommerce store.
Language localization
When starting an eCommerce business, English is the natural language to use as the target language. But there’s one thing you shouldn’t forget if you’re thinking about going international with your eCommerce. The term for this is “language localization.” If you want to expand to European countries, you should know that people like to use the Internet in their own language. In fact, people in many countries, like Germany, Spain, France, and Italy, would be very grateful if you let them shop in their own language. So, look into language localization options before moving forward with your plan to grow your eCommerce business internationally.
Improve your site.
There are a few things you need to know about making your store better for international eCommerce. Most experienced eCommerce business owners today say that the budget should be split into two parts. Spend a small amount of money to fix and tweak the website for the first part. This includes adding support for more than one language, allowing international shipping, and making other similar changes. Remember that you don’t have to redesign the whole store for this, so make sure you have enough money for the next step. The next step should, of course, be used to bring in more traffic from that market.
Improve local SEO.
How will you get more traffic and move up in the search engine rankings when you move into new markets? The answer is to improve local SEO. It is important to do thorough keyword research based on the countries you want to reach. You can improve your sales, content, SEO, and advertising by finding out what your potential customers are looking up on the Internet.
As soon as you walk into the new “playground,” you’ll see some of the other kids in the area. But you’ll be a brand-new store with a lot of products, better prices, discounts, and other perks. You, as a new player in the local game, can get people interested in what you have to offer, unlike your competitors and their stores, by building a local social media presence.
For example, if you want to reach people in Argentina, you can just make a new Facebook page with the name of your store and the word “Argentina” at the end. It should look like “Bella Fashion Argentina” or something similar. Now, use some of the marketing money to get people to like the page. You can choose the people you want to reach based on their location, average income, specific interests, etc.
Find influential people in your area.
Find local influencers is another good way to reach out to the international eCommerce market. You can look for them directly by using hashtags or influencer platforms like Influence.co. If you hire local influencers, you can find more of them, ask each one how much they charge, and then choose based on their fan base, audience reach, and recent performance.
Also, don’t forget to keep the page updated and post at least once a day for at least 60 days. It’s important for visitors to know you mean business, so don’t forget to make all of your posts look professional with a clean design, localized and industry-specific hashtags, and descriptions that are actually provocative.
Summary
Overall, going global with your fashion eCommerce business isn’t that hard. Most likely, setting up payment options is the hardest part because it takes technical know-how. But you should think of this as a long-term investment that should make you a lot of money in the end.
Keep in mind that many of your competitors are afraid to move forward. They would rather sell locally and make $500 to $1,000 a month. Now is the time to take advantage, since your competitors won’t know what you’re doing. If you want to make more money and aren’t afraid to take risks, there’s a good chance you’ll do well.