E-commerce presents opportunities worth exploring. An e-commerce operation can overcome key challenges presented by exporting and importing.

The need to travel to other countries to negotiate sales with customers and contracts with partners is reduced, and in some cases, eliminated. The need for organizational representatives and infrastructure in international markets is not necessary in many cases, depending on the nature of the industry and the products and services being sold.

E-commerce is not without its own challenges and those considering setting up this type of operation should inform themselves about the required components and recommended practices.

Things to consider and prepare for include setting up an integrated model and localizing sites for international markets.

Using an integrated e-commerce model

The goal of an integrated solution is to increase revenue and reduce costs by introducing operating efficiencies. A well-designed integrated model can help e-commerce operations achieve efficiencies by allowing them to reuse product data in several different operations. An integrated model provides fast access to customer history and information for online, call centre and physical operations. It can refer to past purchases and potentially upsell from an automated system. If an order management system is connected to the accounting system, there is no need to manually post order information.

Having product data centralized allows organizations to use it in feeds, on their website, in the call centre and in the physical stores of multichannel operations. Finally, data can be integrated and automation introduced for fulfillment and back office processes. A well-designed integrated system minimizes the number of places where an organization stores data. Ideally, there is a single database for all operational systems.

The more integrated the systems, the more likely the organization’s processes will be simplified. Five recommended data systems for integration into the e-commerce platform include:

• Customer relations, e.g. name, address, order history
• Marketing, e.g. ad feeds, email, social media, analytics
• Product management, e.g. vendor data, product details, inventory control
• Fulfillment, e.g. picking and packing orders, warehouse management
• Accounting and finance, e.g. sales, purchases, expenses, payroll, budgeting, reporting

E-commerce operations wanting to link their online sales and data to other business operations such as inventory and accounting are advised to seek software with integration abilities. Traditionally, e-commerce functions have been managed by separate software systems, creating silos that suffered from a lack of information sharing and consistency.

To set-up e-commerce operations in the past, businesses would purchase on-site, standalone e-commerce software that required extensive ICT setup and in-house management. E-commerce software was purchased to provide the customer-facing, front-end component of online businesses. Additional software was needed to manage back end functions such as accounting, order processing, inventory management and customer service.

Piecing together the different types of software to create a complete e-commerce business platform was complicated, required frequent maintenance and rarely functioned efficiently. On top of that, this approach was often costly, not scalable and time consuming to customize.

New software, known as software-as-a-service or SaaS, allows integration of e-commerce and business functions into a single e-commerce platform.

SaaS provides infrastructure that unifies business applications and feeds them data that enables personalized online customer experiences. There are additional benefits of the integrated SaaS model. It allows customer service representatives to follow customers across all channels. It provides a centralized order and inventory management system that can efficiently fulfill orders from all sales channels. It can use a customer’s order history data to provide relevant offers.

Want to learn more about how to assess your position in the e-commerce marketplace by understanding your operational needs, capabilities, opportunities and challenges? Check out the FITTskills E-commerce online workshop!

Localizing sites for international markets

Localization is important to e-commerce operations that target international markets. Elements to consider in the design of an international e-commerce operation include:

• Region-specific payment options, including the use of local currencies and applicable local taxes, and the provision of payment options based on local practices and preferences
• The ability to manage multiple languages, which can be automatically determined via IP address or can be selected when the visitor lands at a site
• Support of a single product catalogue that can service any country
• Use of region-specific search engine marketing
• Provision of customer support services such as a help lines and live chat features which can handle inquiries in different languages
• Adaption of the website so its image and content appeal to cultural preferences of each international market, e.g. colours and sports teams
• Establish distribution channels to the international market

A more advanced strategy is to create a new website for each country the organization targets and purchase the Top Level Domain (TLD) of that country. For example, for a website targeted at Mexico, the organization would seek the same domain name but use the .mx extension. It is important to acquire the relevant domain name for the local market. Someone who is fluent in both the language of the original content and the destination language should translate the website content, along with the meta tags.

Organizations should consider collaborating with native speakers, who, in addition to language fluency, have an understanding of language variations, colloquialisms and cultural context that can help ensure key information and marketing messages are conveyed online accordingly.

In addition, an organization that is ready to allocate extensive resources towards globalizing their e-commerce operations will want to consider tailoring the promotions and featured products to the needs of the local market. Furthermore, they will adjust the user experience to suit the culture. For instance, in Sweden, simplicity and speed are most important, whereas the French online shopper prefers a more design-led experience.

All these localization activities help with Search Engine Optimization (SEO), as well as creating a positive impression with customers in the international market. Search engines and people generally prefer websites that represent the home country.

When selecting an e-commerce platform, its localization capabilities should be considered, such as the ability to:

• • Create localized online content and sales processes.
  • Create subdirectories or separate websites for each language targeted.
  • Include a Content Management System (CMS) or capability that allows the organization to make unique adaptations for each country.
  • Address problems at a global level rather than requiring individual country-level remediation.
  • Host additional country sites within its environment.
  • Integrate third-party applications, such as a fulfillment company, as the organization adds new localized sites.
  • Route IP addresses to the relevant website.

The post Use an integrated e-commerce model to set your business up for online success appeared first on Trade Ready.

Many people think English is the lingua franca of the world. Well, it depends on exactly what you’re trying to accomplish. Sitting in a restaurant in Paris or shopping in a fancy boutique in Milan, English would quite certainly do well to get what you want. But when it comes to business, in order to grow and compete in a specific market, you have to speak the language your target audience speaks.

“If I am selling to you, then I speak your language, aber wenn du mir etwas verkaufst, dann du muβt Deutsch sprechen” (… but if you want to sell something to me, then you must speak German.) – Former German Chancellor Willy Brandt

Providing an English-only website while simultaneously trying to promote your company across foreign markets gives the impression that you are not prioritizing customers in markets where English is not the primary spoken language, which could result in wasted effort and missed opportunities.

A few other good reasons to translate your website:

• IDG Globalization Report: “Internet consumers are also up to four times more likely to shop and purchase online from websites that support their native language.”
• Content translation speaks the language of ROI: “Visitors stay twice as long if a website is in their own language.” (Which, by the way, is also great for SEO).
• Language Guide for European Business: “Where the website exists in the native language, there are better sales, better brand recognition, and better and easier communication.”

At this point, I think we can all agree that translating is the right choice to make. But is website translation really enough?

There are at least two other steps you need to take in order to grow effectively in a foreign market.

1) Do thorough research when choosing a market.

Identify what countries you are targeting and the potential clients who would be interested in buying your product or service. Can you sell to them and can they buy from you? Do they need what you offer? Who will be your competition? How are customers going to pay you and get the product/service you sell them? Try to gather as much in-depth information as possible about customers’ culture, behavior, where they live—and of course, what languages they speak.

Pay attention, because some languages are spoken in more than one country, but in most cases they are not exactly the same language.

Some examples:

French is widely spoken not only in France but also in Quebec, Switzerland, Belgium, North African countries and elsewhere. Even if the major difference among these French variations, or dialects, is the accent, there are also some words which differ from the French spoken in France and the French spoken in other francophone regions. The difference is even more evident in the many variants of Spanish spoken from Madrid to Buenos Aires, which have some big variants in vocabulary.

Sometimes speaking a language is a choice. Russian is spoken not only in Russia, but also widely in Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and former Soviet countries. While speaking Russian will be more than sufficient in some of these countries, in others such as Ukraine, speaking Russian is a clear ideological and political statement. So if you are targeting customers in Eastern Ukraine, you can use Russian. If your audience lives in Lviv, you should opt for Ukrainian instead.

Mandarin Chinese is spoken (with some dialectal variations) in Mainland China and Taiwan, but if in the first case it’s written exclusively with simplified characters, in Taiwan traditional characters are used instead. In Hong Kong, most people speak Cantonese Chinese, which is written exactly as Mandarin Chinese, with traditional and, less frequently, simplified characters, but pronounced very differently. It may sound confusing, so let’s take a look at a practical example.

Here is the home pages of Nike’s official websites for Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

Mainland China

Hong Kong

Taiwan

As you may have noticed, these three home pages feature different languages. For Mainland China, website content uses simplified characters, while in the Taiwanese version traditional characters are used instead. Hong Kong’s website displays English text (perhaps because English, along with Chinese, is the official language of Hong Kong, or because many expats live there).

Let’s focus on word choice. In the Taiwanese version, the word used for “search” is “搜尋” (sou1 xun2, written traditionally), while China and HK use “搜索” (written simplified and pronounced sou1 suo3 in Mandarin and sau2 saak3 in Cantonese). In fact, in HK and China the word “搜寻” (sou1 xun2 written simplified) is used to indicate more in-depth research, hunt, or investigation, and would sound strange used in this context.

It’s quite similar to the choice of “basket” (UK English) or “cart” (US English) in an online store.

Besides the language aspect, the three home pages feature significantly different designs, images and even products.

Language is only one aspect to be taken into account while adapting the website to a market.

This takes us to another point.

2)  Determine whether you need translation or localization

Localization means adapting a product or content to a specific market or audience. Translation is an important part of this process, but not the only one. To fully localize your website to a country you should also keep an eye on:

• Measurements: If you are a U.S.-based website, keep in mind that most people in European and Extra-European countries have no clue how long a foot or an inch is. Make sure to give metric equivalents.

• Colors: Colors can have different connotations from one country to another. For example, in Italy, the color red symbolizes passion and love, while in China it is the color of luck and in Russia is associated with communism and politics. In Italy, a “yellow book” is a detective story, but in China it’s a book with pornographic content. In Russia, “yellow press” has the same meaning as in English. In Western cultures, white means elegance and purity, but in some Asian countries it represents death and bad luck.

• Pictures: They have to be professional, high quality and localized! Some images can remain acceptable cross-culturally, while others could give rise to scandal. Furthermore, your visitors must be able to relate to what they see on your website. This is why companies publish country-related pictures. Another “sporty” example: in most Western countries, the Adidas website features the American model Karlie Kloss, while in China, users see the German-born Chinese actress Janine Chang.

Adidas France

Addidas China

Currency units: It may be taken for granted, but this aspect also requires localization, especially for internet stores.

• Date formats: You’re organizing an event on 6/10/2017? Be more specific, otherwise your American guests will knock at your door on June 10, while most of your European guests will arrive on October 6.

• Videos: Videos are a great way to increase conversion rate and transmit information to your customers. To maintain their high effectiveness in foreign markets, you should at least subtitle or dub them. Better yet, shoot or design country-specific videos.

• Customer interests and desires: Customers in each country have different ambitions and goals, as well as general tastes and preferences. These have to be taken in account so that your website displays the products or services, which are most appealing to each specific audience.

• Website design: In the localization process, you will need to prepare for differences in text length in the different languages. English website content is usually shorter than in other languages such as Russian, German, or Spanish. On the contrary, Asian languages characters usually allow for saving a lot of space. In Arabic-speaking regions, users write and read right to left, which will impact your website’s design.

Localization should be always carried out with the help of a professional translation agency and/or an expert of your target market(s). Having a native language speaker in your company doesn’t mean that he/she is qualified to do this work, nor is your niece or relative living in a foreign country! And forget about Google translator, too.

Mistranslation and poor translation could lead to disaster. A famous example of this is when Nikita Khrushchev’s “Мы вас похороним!” was interpreted as “We will bury you!” instead of “We will outlast you!” (See more here.) Poorly translated or machine-translated content negatively affects the potential customer’s perception of the company and its products and/or services, so you should always publish high-quality content and choose professional website translation services.

The post What to consider—and why—when translating your company’s website appeared first on Trade Ready.

It’s true what they say – you only have one chance at a first impression. Like any initial face-to-face meeting, certain things will either spike your client’s interest or, unfortunately, cause an immediate distaste. Our first impressions, whether with people or companies, often stand out as the most memorable moments. This is especially true when the first meeting elicited strong emotions, positive or negative.

The good news is that first impressions can be steered, to a certain extent.

Here’s why it’s so crucial to create the best first impression possible.

First impressions – a converter or killer

First impressions go beyond a single moment and memory – they can live on to define whether or not your client will purchase. That first meeting with a client can influence what words they associate with your business and choose to pass on to others. This is largely due to the much-researched cognitive bias called the Halo effect, first described by Edward Throndike.

The Halo effect occurs when a person has immediately associated a positive attribute A to another person, or in this case a business, and as a result automatically assumes the business will also have the positive attributes B, C and D. Unfortunately, this effect works both ways, enabling a negative association to multiply in the same way. In the worst cases, it can severely harm your business. Use this to your advantage – provide the optimal first impression and create a chain effect that will exponentially improve your image.

Visuals – your brand, the design of your website, the design of your brochure and even your email structure – will affect much of your potential clients’ first impressions. The Missouri University of Science and Technology conducted a study on the extent a website influences first impressions, and the result was that after only  2.6 seconds, the visitor had already created an opinion.

Once you have created a beautiful, fast website and your emails are short and typo-free, what more can you do to win them over?

Know what your clients pay attention to

Market research allows you to gain a deeper understanding of what your clients place value on during their purchasing decision. The current “buy local” trend of favouring local products and services is creating some competitive issues for SMEs attempting to enter international markets.

Fortunately, there are affordable, practical ways to be – or present yourself as – a local.

Of course, the same tactics can be applied in the opposite direction if your research shows it may be more favourable to appear as global as possible. With the trend favouring local businesses, how can a company appeal to local clients with a limited budget? How can you convey a firm handshake to a client if you cannot afford to be physically present in the foreign market?

The Missouri S&T study also found that visitors spend up to 5.25 seconds being engaged only with the bottom of your web page, meaning they are checking your imprint! They want the security that you are local and legit. For SME’s with limited budgets who cannot yet afford to open offices in their new international market, let alone a centrally located one, there are several both temporary and longer-term solutions to convey credibility.

1.   Get a prestigious business address

Madison Avenue in New York City or Friedrichstraße in Berlin are globally known streets. Returning to the Halo Effect theory, a prestigious business address will make your local clients view you as more successful, trustworthy and an established company. If you’re not ready to set up shop in one of these recognizable, often unaffordable locations, you can secure yourself a centrally located business address either by:

Asking your co-working space if you can use their address

Hire a local employee and rent them a desk at a co-working space and using the existing office address. Check with the co-working space to see if this is possible – many allow it for a small fee.

Using the address of your local business partner

If your local business partner is located in a good area, see if it’s feasible to list it as your business’s address. Discuss with them beforehand how you will handle any incoming mail.

Renting a virtual office address

Many virtual offices offer real street addresses instead of obvious P.O. boxes. While providers can be expensive, there are affordable solutions out there for companies that can’t be locally present, or have an address that is far from the central business district. Check that the virtual office provider also offers mail management, and for added flexibility, offers monthly or quarterly contracts. Of course, you run the risk of your client turning up at your virtual office address unexpectedly, so make sure there are real people at the address.

Preferably, pick a location that has a shared office/co-working space as well. This gives you the added benefit of being able to rent a meeting room or desk should you want to meet your client in person.

While you may work at another location, this locally rented address should be clearly visible on your website, letterhead, business cards and any other official business correspondence.

In some cases, being local is not the main priority or can even act against your company during your client’s purchasing decision. Here, several international addresses on your website will immediately convey your business as being an established global player. Find a provider that can offer several international business addresses. Having too many providers in different countries can cause you to lose oversight and make this trick more expensive than it should be.

2.   Get a local phone number

If you are not yet present in your foreign market, this can be the biggest converter or killer. Nothing can be more off-putting to a client than wanting to get in contact with you, only to be presented with an international phone number. The expensive phone call, and even an impersonal 1-800 number, can act like a barrier to clients. The solution is simple – don’t make your client go out of their way to buy your product or services. Several affordable services exist that can give you a phone number in your desired country which, when called, will be rerouted to your “real” phone number.

3.   Translate your website into the local language

This may seem obvious but often businesses think English is such a widely-spoken language that they decide not to translate their website into the local language.

A client who notices their native language on your website will naturally feel more comfortable, and associate your company with the credibility of a local business or global enterprise.

Make sure that your content is professionally translated. It’s worth the investment.You should also either hire someone who speaks the local language, or mention up front that you currently only provide English-speaking service. Depending on the product and service you offer, some clients find it enough to get all relevant information from your website and little pre-sale contact is required. Either way it’s best to manage your clients’ expectations accordingly.

While it can seem unfair that only a few seconds hold enough power to determine whether your clients will accept or refute your business, there are easy, affordable tactics you can employ to improve your crucial first impression. These tactics can help build that competitive advantage, especially for businesses that provide online services, but they can also work for businesses offering tangible products. At the end of the day it comes down to understanding your clients and accommodating to their needs.

If they expect a suit – wear the best suit you have.

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