The past year or so have been extremely challenging for online businesses. On one hand, the pandemic sparked a global economic downturn, with a wave of layoffs and salary cuts that led everyone to cut their spending.
At the same time, fears of infection and lockdown orders drove internet shopping to approximately 10 years worth of growth within just 3 months, and some reports show that many intend to spend more online even after the pandemic ends.
That means that while overall spending is dropping, the proportion of transactions taking place online has grown. This opens up an opportunity for ecommerce businesses to scale, quickly. One of the advantages of online shopping is that it makes cross-border shopping far easier.
Here are 4 tips for scaling your online business:
1. Use multiple channels
It’s not an either/or choice between online marketplaces and your online store. You need both to scale your business successfully. Your online store expresses your branding, communicates your business values, and helps grow trust with customers. You can use it to showcase reviews for social proof and use lead magnets to capture customer details and build an email or SMS subscription list.
But online marketplaces help expand your reach. One study found that 66% of people who shop online regularly said that convenience is the main reason they choose a particular seller, while only 47% said that price is the most important issue. That means that your business needs to be easy to find on the right channels, like the marketplaces that people already use.
You might not realise it, but a lot of consumers use online marketplaces as a search engine, then make their purchases on ecommerce websites. So much so, that 63% of shoppers do initial product research on Amazon and Walmart, and then click through to a retailer’s online store to complete the transaction. That’s why you might want to establish a storefront on an online marketplace and link to your own website.
2. Localise your content
Joining an online marketplace in a new geography is a relatively easy way to start or increase cross-border sales, because it allows you to access an existing local market. Payoneer’s Green Channel makes it quick and easy for top sellers to onboard to new marketplaces, so you can expand into new regions seamlessly and broaden your reach further.
But simply opening up a storefront in a local marketplace isn’t enough. You need to adapt your content for your new market. Translating product descriptions into the local language is only the start. You might need to change the features that you highlight for a new geography, for example. People buying your dri-fit t-shirts in one area might be most concerned about fit, while those in another area want to know how breathable they are and whether they’ll be suitable for yoga.
Check out vendors who sell similar products to you, but are more experienced in selling to this country, and pay attention to the issue they focus on and the questions that customers frequently ask on their product pages.
3. Offer the right payment methods
Many people are still nervous about shopping online, and rightly so, considering how much fraud and identity theft still takes place. As a result, you need to reassure them that they can trust your payment process, and accepting the right payment methods goes a long way.
BNPL and the new economic landscape, an independent report by Capital Economics, revealed that 78% of surveyed consumers said that the security BNPL provides when buying from unknown sellers was an important factor for their purchase decision. Partnering with Klarna provides more than a BNPL to your checkout, with buyer and sellers protection it gives shoppers control, flexibility and security over how they pay.
Naturally when expanding your global footprint, you’ll need to accept local currency, which can be awkward if you’re still using your home business bank account for all your transactions. Online payment solutions like Payoneer make it much easier to accept, hold, and convert money between a range of currencies without paying exorbitant fees.
4. Manage local supply and fulfilment chains
Supply and fulfilment chains get more complex as you spread out into more areas and scale your business. You need robust logistics that can handle a high volume of sales, so you don’t end up with disappointed customers. Your logistics partners also need to provide trustworthy tracking information, so that both you and your customers know exactly where each order is at any given time.
Some marketplaces, like Amazon, offer local fulfilment centres where you can store your products, with workers who’ll take care of packaging, delivery, and returns for you. But if you’re going to run sales through your online store at the same time, you’ll also need your own fulfilment setup.
Of course, if your eCommerce business is to scale globally across multiple marketplaces, you’re going to need a flexible payment solution that can help you manage all your international payment requirements efficiently, securely and at low cost. This is where Payoneer could be just what you need.
Online marketplaces can help grow your ecommerce business
Using both your online store and a storefront on an online marketplace can be the best way to scale your business. By combining both channels, localising your content, accepting different payment methods, streamlining supply and fulfilment, and having the best payment management solutions in place, you’ll be well positioned to take advantage of the post-COVID boom in online shopping.
Who are Payoneer?
Payoneer empowers over 5 million businesses worldwide to grow their business by receiving payments in multiple currencies from hundreds of international eCommerce marketplaces hassle-free, allowing them to focus on growing your business. With Payoneer’s fast, secure, and low-cost payment solutions, ecommerce merchants can manage their payments, pay VAT, manage currencies and pay and get paid globally as easily as they do locally.