It’s all well and good having a successful local business, but many entrepreneurs and business owners will want to expand their reach so that they can tackle international markets. This, however, is no easy feat.
It takes planning, dedication and a solid business plan that accounts for everything, from marketing to sales, to SEO and ensuring your local market does not suffer from your expansion.
If you are looking to reach new territories, consider the following.
Partner with Local Sellers Around the World
The first thing you need to figure out is how you will get your product to customers who live in different countries.
For small businesses and at-home stores, this will likely have to be by partnering with other sellers who can buy your product in bulk and then ship to them locally.
This is a great way to expand your reach and increase your sales. They will sell your products in their stores, and you will be able to direct customers to local stores they can buy your product from.
If customers go through your site, you can even benefit from affiliate marketing, where you get a percentage on the sales of your own product because you referred them to another store.
Open Your Own Local Stores for Global Reach
Another way you can sell globally is to open your own local stores.
This will give you greater control but will come with a much higher investment. Do this if you are really successful and can even expand into physical stores.
Sell Online and Ship from Home
The best way small sellers can expand their reach to the international market is to sell online. This will, of course, mean that you will also have to partner with other businesses or start your own store abroad.
This won’t mean opening a physical location so much as having a place you can send your products to that will then be sent locally to buyers in that country.
As stated before, you will need to update your website to either show what products you offer in that region, or you will need to set it up so that they buy from the local seller, not you.
To do this you might want to make a clone of your website and sell using a slightly different domain name – .co.uk instead of .com, for example – or you might want to completely redesign your online store to allow for product filtering based on country.
Either way, your website will need a revamp. There is no better time to redesign your website and e-commerce platform than during an expansion. Invest in professional development from blackbeltcommerce.com so that you can have the international reach you want and the design and user-friendliness to back it up.
Regardless of how you choose to sell online, how you get your product to international customers should always be key.
You will want any stores representing you to carry the same values, and you will want it to be easy for international customers to find your products from a local seller.