Do your market research first
When planning to sell a product or service in a different country you must start to think what are your goals? what is the purpose? my target audience will be same? Why you are choosing this country or no another one?. Who are my competitors? in other words, start the process with market research.
You might ask to yourself, why do I need to think on all these complex issues if I am only to start shipping products in that country but not opening a local business there. Well, the answer is simple, the fact you have been gaining market share and selling more of your products in one country, doesn’t mean you will have the same success in other country. Maybe you are selling sport nutritional products and even though you are selling through an online store, you might find taxes or restrictions for this type of product that can increase your operational cost and ended up translating the price to consumers and you might be in a situation that you will be losing sells because your price is not competitive.
At the market research you must:
- Specify your target country.
You need to know what your target Country is, study the laws and regulations, your competitors in the country, taxes, demographics, social and behavioral factors of the local people, how is the local mail system, the couriers offering services there, etc. You might want to hire a local market research firm to help you with all the details. - Analyze your own data.
Relying in third party data is not a good choice if you are planning to open business abroad. If you are choosing a specific country to start business is because you are seeing a “niche”, maybe you already have people buying your products from that particular market. Check how many sells are you getting from this country, what are is your margin, etc. - Adapting your product.
Not adapting your product to the specifications or consumers preferences is a mistake. Some big companies like McDonalds offers different menus depending on the country they are. Maybe your product needs a particular package or adapt the name because locals can’t pronounce. Cultural, social and personal factors can affect the customer journey and you might need to adapt your products to the local consumers. - Local team.
Start a business without a local support can be hard, even though you have an online store, you might need somebody in the area who can handle customer service or post-sales services, like handle returns, warranty issues, etc. You can hire local persons or agencies to help you with this part of the business. - Logistics.
This topic is related to the previous one. Shipping aspect will be different in this new country, also you might find restrictions with your payment system, maybe you online store use a payment system that doesn’t work in this country, what are you going to do with the returns, you will have a local warehouse, or you will be absorbing the cost and ship the merchandise back.
Again, a big mistake you can avoid is start selling your products online without any kind of planification. You may end up affecting the consumer experience, getting bad reviews, losing money, and of course hurting your brand image internationally. Do your research first, study your market, check the logistic, find local support, check your financial, your numbers, revenue, got you will get pay. By taking care of this aspect first you will avoid future problems and mark the path for a great succeed.
