It’s simple to forget what made the online world such a potent commercial tool amid all the trends, evolutions, and reinventions of the internet and e-commerce: access, connection, and reach. Every customer on the earth can enter your store if you have an e-commerce site.
Expand your brand
Selling internationally can boost sales and is a wise decision when positioning your company for future expansion. For instance:
- The balancing of seasonal business cycles can be aided by international sales.
- If your company has extra service, production, or wholesale capacity, international sales can help it fill the gap.
Start preparing for your global expansion.
Consider that you don’t have to immediately go all-in if your international e-commerce to-do list looks never-ending. In order to create localised web content and experiences that will interest your visitors, first analyse your website statistics to determine where countries visitors are from. Select just one or two markets or regions to begin with, and learn as you go. You’ll soon know where and for what goods and services the greatest demand is. Additionally, you will gather vital market information that you can use when you expand internationally into other nations.
Building your customer experience on the front end
The first place that overseas customers encounter your brand, goods, and services is frequently your online storefront. Welcome international customers using localization components to provide them with the greatest experience.
Language
By speaking to customers in their native languages, you can make them feel more at home and give them greater information about your goods and services. In the WooCommerce Extension Store, you may purchase the MultilingualPress plugin, which will convert your WooCommerce store into other languages. The web is Multilingual for WooCommerce, which translates product information without resulting in inaccurate product listings and sync problems and is additionally offered in the store.
Currency
Additional localization choices can be added to your online commerce. Customers frequently prefer to pay in their local currencies rather than making educated guesses about conversion rates, therefore this “language” is essential for closing purchases. Multicurrency capabilities are included in WooCommerce Payments.
Additionally, you may display values in any and all of the currency codes you choose using the WooCommerce Currency Converter Widget, and you can even give customers the option to change the displayed currency while they browse your website.
User encounter
Websites with interactive features like gift finders and videos, as well as sophisticated API integrations, function well in areas with fast internet access, but they might not look as attractive or function as smoothly in areas without this kind of connectivity. A Digital poll found that if pages don’t load quickly enough, 50% of online shoppers will abandon their shopping carts.
A content delivery network (CDN) will reduce latency and host your material in many places around the world, ensuring continuous website performance.
Supporting your worldwide business on the back end
Going global involves more than just what website visitors can see. You must make it simple for customers to purchase and get goods.
Payments
WooCommerce Payments enables you to accept payments from customers in 135 different currencies and 36 different countries. When selecting and setting up a payment gateway for successful international e-commerce, keep the following in mind:
Develop trust.
Some clients could be leery of making purchases from international merchants, and the really watchful ones might scrutinise your payment experience. Building confidence can be aided by providing online payment methods like PayPal and Apple Pay.
Redirect or integrate?
In foreign markets, some payment gateways are well known and even favoured while fewer people are familiar with them. A redirect to an external website for payment is perceived as insecure and is trusted less in some countries. On the other hand, a third-party website might be more trusted in other nations. Find out which payment gateways are well-known and favoured in your global marketplaces.
Security and conformity
You must make sure the stored data is secure if you integrate your payment gateway and collect consumer payment information. A smart location to start your investigation is this page on the PCI Security Standards Council website.
Taxes
Your tax system needs to be dependable and up-to-date at all times. Utilising a product like WooCommerce Tax is a simple method to guarantee compliance. It fully automates procedures and determines how much tax to charge clients based on their location (city, nation, or state).
Shipping
You must stay up with modern e-commerce organisations which have made quick and secure delivery a standard expectation. Provide options for foreign delivery to allay any consumer concerns, and be open and honest about charges, tracking, and assistance with problem resolution. DHL and USPS are two foreign shippers that WooCommerce has partnered with.
Your reference list for global success
- To decide which international markets have the most potential for your business, analyse website traffic and customer statistics.
- To translate your website into the languages of your potential markets, use a plugin application.
- Activate features for several currencies on your website.
- Pick a payment processor that has a solid reputation in all of your international marketplaces.
- Automate tax collection for many nations so that you may charge customers the appropriate tax.
- Maintain openness regarding prices, alternatives for package delivery, package tracking, and assistance with overseas shipping.
Looking for solutions to specific issues with global e-commerce? There are tens of thousands of WooCommerce extensions available, both free and premium.
