While venturing into international markets, there are a lot of factors that you must consider from the marketing stand-point. Being mindful of these key points will help you in strategising your expansion in a smooth way:-
1. Identify your Global market
First and foremost, you must have a clear and strong rationale behind choosing a particular country for expanding your business internationally. For instance, a particular country could be demographically and culturally similar to your home country and hence, with your brand doing well in your home country, you would want to tap into a similar market internationally. Knowing "why" you want to venture into a particular market helps in making the "how" part clearer.
2. Price your Products right
Consider the following while pricing your products for global markets:-
- A lot of different factors impact the CPM like the industry, targeting, ad placement, market trends, the number of players in the market, etc. Due to that, the CPM rates in different countries differ a lot. For instance, CPM in the USA can be as much as 4x when compared to India. Consequently, the cost per acquisition also goes up.
- A lot of different logistical costs are also involved like, a higher delivery cost. Hence, your prices should be able to cover these additional expenses.
- Also, study the pricing of your competitors in the local market while deciding your prices. Taking into account the purchasing power of the people, gauge properly how much would the local consumers be willing to pay for your product.
3. Payment Methods
It is crucial to consider the general trends and preferences while deciding on the payment methods that you would be offering in a country. In certain countries, like India, Bangladesh, UAE etc., a majority of people prefer cash on delivery.
Hence, not providing COD option in these countries may lead to a low transaction rate.
While in some countries, like the USA, Canada etc, even though people are comfortable with prepaid payments, it is essential to provide the payment gateways with which they are familiar and trust. For instance, Mulmul opted for Razorpay for their UAE market and Paypal for the US.
4. Delivery
Delivery again is a crucial factor to consider. While choosing a delivery partner opt for an agency who can not only ship your products to different global destinations but can also complement your business model like, providing COD. Your delivery partner can also help you in navigating the import laws of that country.
To further streamline your processes, you can also go for a fulfilment service provider. You can store your products in their local warehouse and they will pack and ship the products as and when you receive the orders. This will help you in delivering the orders to your customers a lot faster.
5. Single website or multiple?
While you can go either way, having a dedicated website for a particular country has the following advantages:-
- As discussed, you might want to charge different prices in different countries depending on the additional costs that you might incur. In such cases, just applying the conversion rates using a money convertor on your website might not be the best way forward.
- With different websites, you can also have a dedicated catalogue for each country you want to expand into. This would allow you the flexibility of choosing the products that you want to market in different countries.
- The content on your website should be in sync with the culture and trends of a specific country. Adding a local touch to your website can do wonders for your customer engagement. Having a dedicated website allows you to do that. In addition to users, a dedicated local website is a strong signal for search engines as well.
- Having a dedicated website instead of having a lot of different elements in a single website also helps majorly with the website performance. This again, is instrumental for a good user experience.
6. Go local first
It might be a good idea to develop a good standing in your home country first. It will help you in building a brand image and will also give you an opportunity to iron out any wrinkles in your operations.