E-commerce is one of the sectors that flourish in the Covid-19 pandemic and there is nothing to indicate that this trend should stop soon. The situation looks similar in different countries. And that’s why more and more online retailers think about cross-border expansion, which is relatively easy in e-commerce. Which tool will help you achieve this goal? In this article, you will discover five of our proposals. Read on!

When we look at different countries in Europe, it’s clear that e-commerce plays a relevant role in their economies. For example there are more than 60 million customers in Germany, and each of them spend almost 950 euros per year online. What’s more the CAGR of e-commerce in Germany is estimated to remain around 9% until at least 2023[2]. France – 45 million customers and €750 per person per year. Poland – over 25 million online customers and EUR 450 per person per year[1]. The UK market is also interesting – over 48 million customers and over EUR 1000 per person per year.

Expanding into new markets comes with obvious benefits:

• You get access to a larger target audience
• You can offer products to more wealthy customers, who frequently spend a lot of money online
• Improved business stability (you are independent of one market)

How to pursue cross-border expansion in e-commerce

Scalability is one of the biggest advantages of online activity. Of course, we don’t want to say here that you can scale an e-commerce business with no effort, but the task is certainly simplified. You have to remember about following crucial facets of this endeavor:

• Do deep research on your competitors’ marketing and pricing and set your own strategy to enter new markets
• Translate your webpage (along with all the related elements and documents) to this new language
• Provide customer service in the new language
• Adjust your logistics processes to the new market (so that delivery is still quick and cheap)
• Perhaps you will also need a physical address, but that’s not always mandatory

Undoubtedly, that’s a lot of work. The good news is you can facilitate it with several online tools. Below, you will find five of our ideas. Besides, if you want to make your e-commerce business prosperous, you can’t do without high-quality images. If you need help with it, contact FixThePhoto product retouching services. Experts will make all the needed tweaks so that your photos comply with set standards.

DEALAVO

It is always vital to start the international expansion with thorough research. What does the offer in the new market look like? How many companies sell products that you offer? What are the prices? With this knowledge, you can assess how profitable the given market is. Here, we hope you will find Dealavo useful. With our price monitoring tool, you can discover your future competition (also on marketplaces) and see how competitive your offer is. You have to remember that only because you succeed in one country doesn’t automatically mean that you will succeed in another.

Before you start doing anything, verify in which countries your products have a chance to be recognized and attract customers. In general, it’s better to look for countries where your products are more expensive but still popular. On the other hand, the market that’s overfilled with similar products, in which they are sold cheaper than in your home country isn’t probably worth attention. And that’s the kind of knowledge that you can get from our platform!

Try our tool for two weeks for free!

CHANNABLE

Channable is a comprehensive online tool that can be used to manage sales across all channels and integrate your online store with them. Thanks to Channable, you also have your inventory under full control. Moreover, this platform offers 2,500+ integrations with price comparison websites, affiliate networks, and marketplaces. All in all – a great help for every online store owner.

Check Channable website.

UNBOUNCE

New markets mean new offers and new websites. If you use landing pages in your online business, Unbounce.com is here to help you. You can easily create new landing pages with this platform. Unbouce comes with over 100 different landing page layouts so that you can easily adjust your LPs to new products and niches. Unbounce has recently implemented a new conversion intelligence platform that uses AI to boost your marketing campaigns.

Unbounce.com

EURODNS

If your online store has a name that may be difficult for foreigners to pronounce or write, you should think about a new domain with a name that is easily pronounced in a foreign language. English names are probably the universal ones. Here, you will need the Eurodns.com service, where you will find a new domain for your online store along with a new extension.

Check out the Eurodns.com website.

LUFAPAK

At the beginning of this article, we mentioned that a physical address in the target country could come in handy. And, of course, it is also necessary to properly plan logistics processes in the new market. In both of these cases, Lufapak saves the day. This company will help you open a store in Germany or in the UK, and they will support you concerning logistics and storage of your products. Lufapak provides clients with a local warehouse address (for both shipments and returns). This means that your foreign customers can see that the package will come to them from a local address, which is crucial for gaining their trust. Many companies are providing similar fulfillment services all over Europe. All you need to do is find such a logistics partner in a given country, and you can start shipping products almost immediately.

Lufapak.de

 

Of course, depending on circumstances, you might need more or different tools. If that’s the case in your situation, we encourage you to visit the KickSaaS platform. Inside, you will find attractive offers and discounts for lots of tools that facilitate running an online business, including e-commerce.

Did you find this article useful? We hope so! Dealavo regularly publishes blog posts and articles that streamline managing an online store. If you want to start your expansion from a good and deep research check out our free demo of the price and competitors monitoring tool.  

[1] The E-commerce in Europe 2020 report

[2] https://ecommercegermany.com/blog/e-commerce-trends-in-the-dach-market-2021