Sales abroad for an online store is a good way to expand the audience of customers and earn money.
It is quite real if you have it:
A high-quality product or exclusive
Sales abroad will be profitable if you produce the goods yourself. At the same time, you are ready to be responsible for the quality and can offer your customers something original. Or you can try to sell goods bought from a local manufacturer. Judging by Data Insight research, Fashion industry goods (clothes, footwear, accessories), home and interior products, as well as electronics are in great demand among foreign buyers.
The price is lower than foreign analogs of the same quality
Sales will be better if you set a lower price than the competition. This is important because a foreign buyer will have to spend more money on delivery. Plus the time of delivery of the order will always be longer than when you buy from one of the sellers of the same country.
Most likely because of the ruble exchange rate, the cost of your product is already lower than its Western counterparts, so you can easily set lower prices.
If you are ready to comply with these conditions, follow the instructions. We tell you how to prepare your online store for sales abroad.
Explore the foreign market
Determine who you want to sell to. It’s easier to start with Europe: here your prices will be lower than those of local manufacturers, but the quality is higher than that of Chinese goods.
To understand how to work in a new market, study it from all sides:
Competitors
Check if there are any analogs of your product in the foreign market. Search by product name in English for Google, Ebay.com, Etsy.com and other markets. If you have found it, study what makes the product look like yours, what is the difference, and what are your advantages.
If there is nothing like it, it’s easier for you to enter the market.
Buyers
Foreign buyers differ in their preferences and manner of communication. What sells well in your country may not go abroad and vice versa. To understand the difference, compare the assortment of foreign shops with your own.
Thus foreign buyers appreciate high quality and original design, react more quietly if something went wrong, and willingly leave positive responses.
Prices
Find out the prices of foreign competitors. Deduct the average price from the shipping cost and get an approximate price above which you should not go up.
In the U.S., sellers practice free shipping. The ability not to pay anything other than the value of the goods is very attractive to customers. Therefore, free delivery can also be experimented with, making it only for individual countries or for orders above a certain amount. Magento 2 shipping extension will help you with this issue.
Legislation
Before you start selling abroad, find out all the restrictions that apply to your products. For example, there are no special restrictions for retailers of clothing, footwear or accessories.
But if you are selling medicines, electronics, food or other goods that may have foreign customs issues, consider international trade rules. eBay can help you with this.
If you are a retailer and your product is not on the list of restrictions, there should be no problem. Foreign taxes and duties of the seller do not a concern in any way if it is not a question of exporting large batches of goods. In the case of large exports, customs duties should be paid and taken into account in the delivery fee.
Connect advertising channels
To attract foreign clients you can use the same advertising tools as for your market: social networks, contextual advertising, search engine promotion. We recommend to start with these tools:
Instagram is a good place to sell original, designer things: accessories, clothes, shoes, jewelry. The main thing here is beautiful photos
See how foreign brands run their accounts and feel free to learn from them and borrow ideas.
Another way to get promoted on Instagram is to work with bloggers.