Strategies for effective multi- territory expansion

10 Oct Strategies for effective multi- territory expansion

Our commercial Director Ross recently spoke at a event for our partners Brightpearl about the about various merits of expansion overseas. If you didn’t have a chance to be at the event you can read through a brief precis of his recommendations below:

The reasons for expansion abroad are well documented, gaining access to an increased market, diversification of your customer base and increasing your brand presence – so why aren’t we all doing it?

Here are our top tips to keep the process of international expansion as easy as possible:

Step 1 – Use the right tools

Setting up a new website in a new currency and language, with its own tax rules and routes to market can be an overwhelming task. Make this as simple as possible by starting with the right platform for the job.

9 times out of 10 the right ecommerce platform for international expansion is Magento. It includes as standard features such as the facility to manage multiple sites on a single admin, multi-currency pricing, integrated language packs, and localised product catalogues all of which make the task of launching as quick and easy as possible.

Pair this with a feature rich ERP solution like Brightpearl, which gives you access to a wide range of international shipping providers and access to localised eBay and Amazon markets and your major headaches are dealt with.

Step 2 – Do your homework

Spend some time researching the market – use tools like Google Trends, Keywords and Amazon top seller lists to research the most likely markets for your products.

But don’t spend too long researching – the best data is your real sales data.

Step 3 – Deal with the translation issue

If possible avoid translation completely by choosing an English speaking country, or alternatively choose a nation with a high EPI (English Proficiency Index – See EF English Proficiency report – an interesting read).

If you must translate in a new and untested market, concentrate on top sellers before translating your entire product catalogue, or use Google translate plugs ins.

Although far from perfect it will save you investing thousands of pounds on translation costs should the market prove to be a dud.

Step 4 – Get it launched

The best means to make a decision on a local market is real data. If you follow the previous steps you should be able to launch quickly and easily and test the market for real.

Set up low level PPC and Facebook advertising on the local areas focusing on your top sellers or those that were of particular interest in your research stage. Examine your existing routes to markets to see if they offer options for international markets. At BodyFit we have had great success with the exisitng links they had in place with affiliates for example. If it’s quick and easy then plug them into the mix.

Then keep reviewing and keep launching.

Uber lunches in a new town every 5 days by following a lean and pre-defined launch plan. Follow the steps above and there is no reason you can’t have similar goals.

If you want to talk to Invenda about your international expansion plans, then email me at ross@invenda.co.uk