10 ways to grow your international sales using personalization
DESCRIPTION
10 aspects about crossborder e-commerce. 10 ways to internationalise your e-commerce business. Localise your online business. 10 steps to get you started.TRANSCRIPT
Cross border ebook
10 ways to grow your international sales using personalization
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10 ways to grow your international sales using personalization
Introduction
Unlocking international or cross-border sales has never been as
lucrative as it is today. Historically distance was always a factor
preventing growth in trade – a 10% increase in distance used
to account for an 18% decrease in trade because of shipping
costs, a lack of trust in the unknown institutions, and a lack of
available information. Now, the decrease is only 1%1. Cross-border
ecommerce is also growing beyond traditional ecommerce
havens. In fact, nearly a third of people in the developing world
use the Internet2. This is why cross-border shopping is estimated
to be worth $105 billion in 20143.
While this is a huge growth area for ecommerce businesses, with
international trade expected to account for 20% of ecommerce
by 20174, several obstacles still prevent online customers from
comfortably venturing outside their own borders and buying
internationally.
1 Internet Retailing, 20142 Internet Retailing, 20143 PayPal, 20134 Channel Advisor, 2014
1/3 of people in the developing
world use the
internet2
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International sales are estimated
to be worth $105 bn in 20143
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By 2017, 20% of sales are estimated to be cross-border1
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10 ways to grow your international sales using personalization
These challenges often involve language or currency difficulties,
logistics and local laws, brands that are unknown to the customer
and so are difficult to trust – and product information
that is confusing.
So while cross-border trading is undoubtedly difficult,
personalizing the shopping experience is one method you can
use to increase cross-border revenues. Personalization allows
you to engage each user on their own terms, provide pertinent
information that builds trust and reassurance, and takes advantage
of local opportunities.
So how do you get started? This ebook will show you what
is possible when personalizing for international visitors, what
personalization looks like, and how you can get going.
The 7 mostpopular overseas
markets to buy from are: USA, UK, China, Hong
Kong, Canada, Australia,
and Germany6
The UK
has the highest
ecommerce spend
per capita5
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5 Asendia, 20146 PayPal, 2013
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What do you need to get started?
Data gathering
To personalize effectively, you need to gather data. Being able
to compare visitors from different places will provide insights,
which you can act upon. This can be as simple as discovering
that native shoppers behave in one way, whereas visitors from
other countries behave another way. Their use of your site,
and what they end up buying and in what quantity, can vary
considerably.
It is important to have visitor analytics on your site that will
give you much of this information. This starts with a robust
data model so you can create customer segments for each
geo-location. It can be difficult to make sense of all that data
without some context. It is a good idea to collect qualitative
feedback from customers themselves in order to find clues
in the data. By using a customer feedback or survey tool,
preferably one that automatically translates feedback from
their native language into yours, you can find insights that will
inform the rest of your analysis.
On top of this, visitors from other territories may be visiting but
not buying. You can also use heatmapping software to compare
what different visitor types are doing on your site, to understand
which areas of your site draw the focus of different groups
of visitors. Armed with this data, you can then turn your
attention to putting the insights they provide into action
with personalization.
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1 | Make your visitors feel at home
For new visitors, the second they hit your site, it is a chance
to introduce them to your brand, and inform them of your key
USPs. For overseas visitors, this also acts as an opportunity to let
them know how you serve their area, whether it’s free delivery
to that area, nearby help centers, or other local knowledge
and information that will help new visitors out.
How does it work?
Using IP detection along with personalization software allows
you to target users from different countries, even down to
individual city level. Upon detection of your visitor, you can serve
a hyperlocalized message introducing your brand, with relevant
offers, and telling them how to get started.
Example
Topshop used an unobtrusive section in their top banner for
visitors from different countries with offers relevant to their
location. Also note the different use of Fahrenheit or Celsius
depending on where the visitor is!
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2 | Redirect users to a local language site
Trust is one of the biggest barriers to international trade. It’s
impossible for users to trust you fully if they don’t understand
the language you use on your website. A common mistake
is expecting people to be able to cope with English, or using
a machine translation tool that is full of errors. Offering users
a native option, or multiple language options will help them
engage with your brand and build trust.
How does it work?
When expanding you have the option of building separate
domains with their own local teams, or providing different
language versions of your main site. When you detect a user, you
can either set up an automatic redirect, or give users the option
of choosing the language or domain that they wish to shop in. If
you haven’t yet built different language versions, then be careful
relying on machine translations to do the job for you because
mistakes are common, and it will erode trust with your customers.
Example
When you arrive on Staples.com from the UK, you have the
option of selecting whether you want the US or UK domain,
giving you the option to stick with your original choice, or switch
to a local domain site.
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3 | Target users with relevant products for their location
As you gather more data about your visitors and their habits, you
will be able to see which products or categories are most popular.
If you sold shoes, you might find that flip-flops were more popular
in Sydney, while boots were more popular in New York. You can
use this information to target users from specific areas. Then,
as your personalization becomes more sophisticated, you can
supplement this information with visitor history data, to target
users based on their previous activity too.
How does it work?
With this data, you can adapt your site with to bring the most
popular products to the front. You can even make it explicit by
telling your visitors that other visitors in their area are looking for
certain products. You can also implement in-session retargeting
towards users based on what they have been looking at in their
current and previous sessions.
Example
Arriving on easyJet’s site, you are presented with offers from your
local airport. EasyJet detected that we were in London, so we see
flights from Gatwick selected as default, with the best offers.
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4 | Highlight local payment methods and other helpful info
You can go a long way to reassure visitors from different locations
by targeting them with relevant information about local payment
methods, shipping and customs costs, returns procedure, and
local customer service. This kind of information is invaluable
to anyone coming to your site for the first time, particularly
from another country. By being open and upfront about this
information, visitors will be more trusting, overcoming one
of the biggest barriers to cross-border trading.
How does it work?
By detecting the IP of the user, you can target users with the
information that is most pertinent to them at that time. You can
also analyze your visitors’ behavior and detect areas of your
site where users are likely to need a little more help. If they are
spending time on your product pages, you can highlight your
shipping policy, or any relevant offers. Ideally your customer
should not need to scour around looking for the information they
need – it should be at their fingertips.
Example
DFS have catered to French visitors by displaying this information
layer giving them relevant, localized information about delivery
throughout France. Using the Qubit platform, they found a 23%
increase in conversions for international users.
Read the case study here
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5 | Provide localized product information
It’s a mistake to assume that everyone speaks English when
they come to your site, and likewise, it’s a mistake to assume
that everyone uses the same sizing or technical information.
For example, a size 10 dress in the UK would be a size 6 in the
US and a size 38 in the EU. Not everyone understands feet and
inches, or meters and centimeters, and they don’t want to spend
the time working it out. This is where you can step in with your
own comparative size guide showing them what they are getting.
How does it work?
If someone is browsing product information, or the technical
specification, this is your opportunity to serve a layer to visitors
from other territories showing them a guide with the information
that they need. If you have separate domains for different
territories, then you should still aim to target users when they
might be “lost” on your site, with a country-specific shopping
guide. Today’s shoppers are hyper-informed, so it’s best that
you are prepared to give them the information they need.
Example
ASOS have provided a handy dress size conversion guide for
shoppers who need to do a size comparison to navigate the
tricky terrain of different dress sizes.
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6 | Detect local currency, or offer currency conversion
If a visitor from the Eurozone comes to your site and sees prices
in dollars, they’re likely to be put off. A lot of us would need help
converting Australian dollars to US dollars, or Hungarian forints
to Euros, because there is no truly universal currency. So you
should make it as easy as possible for users to translate prices
into a currency they are familiar with, by offering currency
conversion, or prices in multiple currencies.
How does it work?
You have a few options here, the simplest of which is to offer
a currency converter tool on your product pages. You can then
target a layer to serve when someone comes to your product
pages, and use IP detection to offer conversion to their native
currency. If you have more technical know-how, you can even
use JavaScript to embed a converted price below, to help your
visitors further.
Example
Alibaba gives you the prices for their items in a localized currency
by automatically calculating the exchange amount on the page
for you. Below you can see the costs of items in dollars, having
been converted.
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7 | Provide localized customer service
However well you’ve translated your page and however much
detailed product information you’ve provided, it is likely that some
users are still going to have a few questions. By providing local
help numbers, you allow users to get the information they need
in the language they speak. Or go one step further, and use a
live-chat widget to talk to users in their local language and help
them to purchase.
How does it work?
You can trigger your live chat layer to launch when users appear
to be stuck on your site and ask them if they need more help.
If users are looking on the same page for more than 30 seconds,
there’s a good chance they’re unable to find the information that
they need. Another sign might be if they return to the same page
over and over again. At this point, serve your live chat widget, or
help number – which you can track using call tracking technology
– and you can ensure you are directly serving your users’ needs.
Example
Childrensalon gives visitors the opportunity to chat to a customer
service representative in the local language. This layer highlighting
the live chat feature was shown to visitors asking if they wanted
to chat with someone. It led to a 13% increase in conversions.
Read the case study here
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8 | Understand seasonality and local knowledge
Cultural differences mean that different products will be more
popular in different parts of the world, or that certain items are
illegal in some areas. On top of that, you need to adapt your
site for the local climate. There’s not much use promoting
winter clothes in Australia in December. So, be aware of local
differences, and adapt your site to bring a more personalized
web experience to your users.
How does it work?
Having a dedicated person looking for opportunities in different
countries is the best way to ensure you seize your chances.
Analyze visitor history data to spot buying patterns in different
countries and see which items are unusually popular or
unpopular, and serve messages to take people to the
popular products directly. With tailored reports that track the
performance and behavior of visitors against your business
objectives, like the one pictured, this task becomes much simpler.
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Example
During June, Boohoo’s UK site is built to reflect the summer feel
with T-shirts, summer dresses and sunglasses. But, its Australian
site focuses more on sweaters, jackets and warmer dresses,
reflecting the season.
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9 | Connect your offline and online channels
Contrary to popular myth, the growth of ecommerce has not
been at the direct cost of physical shopping. Instead, it has been
those brands with physical stores that have embraced digital, and
have put it at the center of their overall campaign who have seen
success. Therefore you can target users with click-and-collect
services from local stores, or invite them to attend local events,
or for travel businesses, give them information about flights
from their local airport.
How does it work?
Using geolocation, you can serve hyperlocal messaging
that informs visitors where their nearest store is so they can
click-and-collect. Or if you are running an event in their area, you
can invite them along. This kind of localised targeting can also be
used to reach visitors who will not have seen offline advertising,
such as leaflets or local TV adverts.
Example
Belstaff gives users information about where their local store
is so they can go and see the physical product before making
a commitment. To help visitors, a layer encouraging users to click
and collect their items was served to those users that had viewed
the store locator.
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10 | Create smart landing pages for different users
Location is just one thing you can personalize by. As you gather
more data, and spot more opportunities, you can start to create
dynamic landing pages for different user segments. For example
returning visitors may want to see something relevant to what
they saw in previous sessions.
How does it work?
With visitor history data, you can start to spot patterns and adapt
elements on your page to promote more relevant items based
on what’s in your visitor’s basket. You can even do in-session
retargeting to direct users to items that are relevant to what
they’ve been looking at in this session.
Examples
Jet2 uses its visitor history data to automatically fill in information
on journeys that you have previously searched for. This gives users
the ease of not having to fill in the information that they need.
They can also use this information to adapt the main banner
to reflect related offers.
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Conclusion
Some of the biggest risks with convincing people to buy from
an international retailer include uncertainty, lack of brand trust,
and a lack of local knowledge. Some of this can be solved by
setting up teams and domains in every territory you want to
sell to. But this is an expensive option, and a near-impossibility
for most businesses. With the power that a personalization
platform provides, it becomes much easier to adapt your
site to international visitors, and capture opportunities.
There is very little substitute for local knowledge. Gathering user
behavior data and feedback from users to inform the changes
that you make is the best way to find the information that
is most relevant to your customers’ needs.
Combining this data with geo-targeting technology, you can
target useful and relevant information to users to improve their
digital experience and persuade them to convert. This kind
of data-led strategy allows you to not only expand into new
territories, but flourish when you do.
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About Qubit
Qubit enables ecommerce businesses to become real-time
retailers. We do this by giving marketers the ability to deliver
website personalizations with pinpoint accuracy responding
to consumers’ need wherever they are. Our technology suite
brings together web personalization, audience segmentation
and business intelligence applications, designed for the needs
of the modern ecommerce professional. Together, these
applications find real insights, driving real uplifts that show
up in the bottom line for the biggest ecommerce brands,
including Topshop, Uniqlo, John Lewis, Jimmy Choo
and Staples.
For more information about our products and research,
please contact [email protected] or visit our
website www.qubitproducts.com.
Qubit.
Real insights. Real uplifts.
