If your business has been experiencing a fair amount of success, you may be wondering what you can do next to continue making plenty of sales and generating huge profits. Now, there are, of course, countless things that you can do. But one major step you can take is expanding to a global market. The majority of businesses focus on selling to the company in which they are registered and based. But chances are, there are other people out there who would be interested in your products too! Now, this can be a pretty intimidating step, and not every business will experience success. But if you want to give it a try, here are just a few areas to focus on!
Focus on Ecommerce
The rise of Ecommerce is what’s helped many of us to really expand into selling to a much bigger audience. Rather than relying on customers coming into a brick and mortar store, anyone around the world can simply connect to your website and browse your goods. If you decide to sell to an international audience, you simply give the option of international shipping and yur good to go! Now, you should make sure that your website is set up in a manner or through a shopping platform that allows for international sales and purchases. Shopify is a good example. It has a logical user interface, so is easy to use, and can help you to create an appealing website that will be simple and straightforward for your customers to use. It can also provide fast page loading speed for users around the world, preventing potential buyers from becoming frustrated and clicking the exit tab.
Understand Taxation
Taxation in one country is going to be significantly different to another. Make sure you have a thorough knowledge of what taxes you may need to pay to ship internationally – such as GST and VAT. You may need to use a document translation agency to help you with this.
Consider Shipping Options
Next is the big issue that many businesses face when selling internationally – shipping. Now, shipping is often a point of contention when it comes to operating internationally. You may not be able to offer free shipping options or cheap shipping options like you might for customers in the company where your business operates, as you can’t deliver things yourself and customers are also likely to have to pay extra customs charges. Generally speaking, it’s advised that you charge international customers the full shipping costs of getting the item to them. Most are understanding, as it’s their choice to shop with a distant brand. Otherwise, you may find your profits significantly impacted by covering significant shipping costs. Make sure that you also understand restricted goods when shipping internationally. You need to make sure that your products will definitely arrive.
These are just a few areas to start focusing on when you’re planning on expanding into an international market. Hopefully, some of the information will prove pretty useful for you!
