When it comes to making a global e-commerce impact, no other platform compares to Shopify.
The e-commerce giant has ruled the e-commerce roost for a while now, but thanks to Covid it’s reached new heights — according to stats reported in late March 2021, Shopify is now home to over 1M businesses and raked in close to $1 billion in Q1.
So, what does this mean for your growing e-commerce store?
Shopify may just be the perfect platform to help you reach new cross-border audiences and position your store for a global takeover.
Of course, expanding to other countries isn’t without challenges. But that’s where we come in.
In this ultimate guide to Shopify international selling, we’ll dig into the details and dish out how to take your e-commerce store across borders in nine simple steps.
As a growing ecommerce brand, you already understand the importance of targeted marketing. The same, customer-centric philosophy applies when you take your Shopify store international.
Simple, right? Well… not quite.
Every regional market has its own unique purchasing habits — for example the types of store layouts certain audiences expect or the online browsing patterns of different consumers in different cultures. So, before you leap into a new market, it’s essential to investigate your options and choose just one new market to dive into first. Get it right, then move on to conquer the next.
If you don’t have international sales yet, identify the markets that would ideally match your store. Start by thinking about markets that are relatively close to you, are easy to ship to, and have similar purchase habits.
Then, ask yourself the following questions:
If you’ve been selling in the US, you’ll be used to asking shoppers to pull out a credit or debit card to make an online purchase. But for many countries, that’s not how things are done. Often, international shoppers use secure banking transfer systems or other more common payment methods in their regions.
To make international payments simple, here’s what to do:
How likely are you to purchase from a Shopify international store in another language? Yeah, neither are your customers. In fact, 42% of Europeans never purchase from a store in a language other than their own.
To avoid customers running your sales pages through Google translate each time they shop, it’s important to support the local language.
But the buck doesn’t stop there — because Google isn’t fooled when it comes to countries that share your language either. When shoppers search for their favorite product, Google only shows them content most relevant to them — and that includes geographic proximity.
The answer? International domains.
By setting up domains specific to the region you’re targeting, you can provide a more personalized experience that includes content in local languages and pricing in local currencies. For example, let’s say your standard US domain is mystoreonline.com. You could set up shop in France by using mystoreonline.fr or fr.mystoreonline.com.
If you ship from the US to Canada, it probably takes a little longer than shipping locally. But shipping to the other side of the world? You’ve got a whole new set of standards to deal with.
Here’s how to ace international shipping:
With great international selling, comes great additional shipping costs.
These costs are known as ‘landed costs’ — the total amount you pay to deliver a product to an international address.
Landed costs include shipping costs, taxes, insurance, and duties or customs fees. Get to know these inside-out because they’ll impact how much your customers pay and will affect your conversion rates.
For example, if you quote a manageable $13.50 shipping fee for an international sale, you may not account for the $20 duty fee added to the order. Your customer is in for a rude awakening if their package gets caught up in customs.
So, before you expand, get familiar with the rules and regulations of specific counties. These rules may help determine which countries to start selling in and will help prevent any future mishaps if you miscalculate the actual cost for your customer.
Returns are stressful enough, but when you go global with Shopify, you’ll have a whole new set of requirements to think about.
To avoid missing the returns beat, home in on regional legislation around international returns, and do some digging around typical return behavior for the countries you target.
Despite the drawbacks, when you have a standard return policy that’s visible and easy to understand, you’re far more likely to capture sales. Though returns are inevitable, you’ll reduce the likelihood of having items sent back if you do the following:
Believe it or not, if you start small, managing customer service in different time zones should be a cinch.
To offer solid customer service across all your selling markets, take time to:
Social media is a great way to connect with customers all over the world — and if you’re already running local ads on social, all you need to do is to get them segmented and dialed in for local markets.
Here’s how to run ads that will convert in any market:
If you’ve ever traveled abroad, you know cultural differences are real — drilling down on these is everything when it comes to international sales.
To make sure you hit the local culture in the right way, follow these three tips:
Congrats! Now that your plan’s in place, you’re ready for the upfront work it takes to get your Shopify store into new markets. 🎉
Remember it’s best to start with one new market at a time and stay close to home in the beginning — then, when you have your shipping, fulfillment, and fees nailed, you can start looking into broader markets.
Like any new business venture, you’ll face some challenges. But stay focused and before you know it, you’ll be sure to scale your global e-commerce store in no time.
