How To Sell To International Customers.

Once you’ve mastered business money management, you can start to consider how you can grow your business. You can look at other regions in your home country, but you may find more success selling internationally. With websites and social media, it has never been more straightforward to market your business to customers even if they’re on the other side of the world. If you want to sell internationally, here is a quick guide to help you begin.

 

ADJUST YOUR MARKETING

The first thing you need to remember before selling to international markets is that what works at home doesn’t always work overseas. This is especially true if your marketing is full of puns or wordplay that make sense to an English-speaking audience but wouldn’t make sense to French or Japanese customers. Furthermore, you don’t want to offend your new customers by marketing something that would be deemed culturally insensitive.

These market entry strategies can help you determine the best approach and even give you the advice to take inspiration from other companies in your industry that have sold to international customers successfully.

 

SET UP PAYMENT

You also need to choose your payment processing carefully. Since you are dealing with different currencies and overseas banks, it may not be possible to use your usual bank transfer.

Instead, research the best international payment processing services to establish a reliable and efficient solution. This approach gives you and your customers an easy and universal way to pay, meaning you can minimize additional costs, such as foreign currency conversion. The money transfer is also much quicker, so you can receive payment as soon as possible.

 

ADAPT YOUR PRODUCTS & PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS

Worldwide selling means you need to make sure your website and product descriptions are easy to understand. While many of your customers may speak good English, the language still contains plenty of nuances that are lost on second-language speakers.

Use a professional website translator rather than relying on Google’s automatic website translation to make it easy for them to read. This also applies to product descriptions and FAQs as it will improve their browsing experience. It helps if you are at least proficient in the language of your chosen market, as this can help you overcome customer service issues.

 

EDUCATE YOURSELF

Shipping products overseas can include tax expenses and regulations. Although you may be happy to pay these initially, the costs will eventually add up, meaning you could end up making a loss despite improved sales.

It is worth educating yourself on the tax requirements and adjusting your prices or shipping processes accordingly. Your products may take longer to get there as you work out which international postage works best, although as you learn more, you should be able to find a more efficient service. Furthermore, you don’t want to fall afoul of any laws, so research what you can and can’t ship to specific countries.

 

INTERNATIONAL

International selling could help your business reignite interest as you appeal to markets you didn’t even consider being interested in your product or service. You may be surprised at how many people want what you’re selling, so it’s always worth exploring new markets no matter how far away they are.

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Thank you so much for reading! – xo N

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this is a contributed post.