The dawn of digital technology has made it possible to serve a much broader range of customers while providing them with maximum flexibility and choice throughout their shopping journey. These capabilities are expanded even more when you take that major leap into the international market. Because making this move represents both the potential for lucrative profits and inevitable risk, you need to first take your time and carefully walk through a few important preliminary steps that will help to prepare you well for your ecommerce launch.

1. Assess your business and the effects of global marketing.

Without having a complete understanding of your current products and customers, you cannot realistically expect that you’ll be able to set the stage for growth. As you begin to carefully proceed forward in this beginning stage, consider taking the following actions.

• Conduct a full inventory of your products to determine which ones you are going to share with your international customers. It’s best to start small so that you don’t get overwhelmed.
• Take a deep dive into your new market to determine customer demand. What products that are similar to yours are the most popular? Do you have anything to offer that meets a need that no one else in the area is currently filling?
• Conduct a SWOT analysis. This represents your business’s current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. As you think about your future customers around the world or across the pond, this important assessment will help you to lay out a business plan that emphasizes what you are doing well and works to minimize or eliminate your areas of deficiency.
• With the help of data analytics, social media perusal, and old-fashioned networking, do what it takes to learn about the international sector you are entering. Make sure there is room for what you have to offer and that you will have a good chance of making a profit within a reasonable period of time.

This is the important groundwork that will be one of the first building blocks in your strong foundation for international success.

2. Make a plan.

Just as every U.S. city and geographic region is unique, so are the foreign countries you plan to serve. Therefore, you must get to know what cultural, economic, social, and regulatory factors separate your target area from everywhere else. Here are some steps to take within this context.

• Set immediate, mid-range, and long-term goals, as well as success metrics and objectives.
• Determine your structure and business model. For instance, will you be setting up a separate business or branch? Do you plan on hiring local help or would you rather run everything from afar?
• Create a comprehensive annual budget.
• Plan out the timing of your project for at least the next year, including concrete dates and the names of which staff members will be responsible for completing each task.

As you go through this process, keep in mind that you may already have much of the technology and third-party assistance you will need. For instance, the ecommerce payment provider you already use may have the international expertise necessary to anticipate and meet your needs as your business expands.

3. Get your products ready.

Thanks to the analysis you have already performed, you know which of your products will be best suited to your new international customers. Now you just need to keep moving forward to ensure that buyers have access to the goods they might not even know they want. Start by doing the following.

• Conduct thorough research to learn what governmental and industrial regulations and standards you will be expected to follow. Special emphasis should be placed on getting any required certifications or tax licenses.
• If applicable, make sure your patent and product trademarks will remain intact and invulnerable to intellectual espionage.
• Implement quality assurance and any other necessary testing to be sure your products are in line with local standards and requirements.
• Come up with product sales and delivery strategies that will help get merchandise into the hands of your foreign customers quickly and accurately.

Once you implement these actions, you can be assured that your merchandise, the lifeblood of your business, is accessible to all your buyers, whether they live around the corner from you or across the world.

4. Develop a marketing strategy.

No matter how unique, cost-effective, or innovative a product might be, it will fall flat if customers don’t know about it. That’s where your comprehensive marketing strategy comes into play!

• Decide how you will be selling your products. You could elect for an all-online, distributor, indirect, or even hybrid sales model.
• Determine the “hook” that you will use to advertise. Is your product the solution to a problem? Does it have unique features that set it apart? Is its price unbeatable? Your answers will come to be the theme of your advertising mechanism.
• Come up with tangible metrics that you can use to gauge your success.

Once these elements are in place, you can begin to think more about the nuts and bolts of your ecommerce infrastructure.

5. Solidify your website and payment infrastructure.

Preparing and optimizing your website to meet the needs and expectations of your new consumer base is one of the most important steps you can take when plotting your international expansion. After all, your site is your business’s virtual goodwill ambassador and represents the first impression that you put forward. With that in mind, be sure to do the following. 

• Review your product images, video content, and overall homepage and web design. The goal is to have a site that is clear, navigable to all devices including mobile phones, friendly, and transparent.
• Talk to your international payment processing provider about accepting multiple currencies. Consumers will be put off if you fail to offer products at prices they understand and in a currency they already use every day.
• Check to be sure your payment gateway provider is equipped with secure shopping cart protocols designed to keep your international customers’ data safe.
• Ask your ecommerce payment provider about configuring your system to automatically calculate currency exchange rates. This helps to reduce the chances of customer confusion and chargebacks.
• Offer numerous payment choices, keeping in mind that customer preferences tend to vary according to the geographic location where they live.

Although these steps may seem complicated, methodically taking them can help you to create a multi-national business whose strength comes from its core. No matter what you are selling or to whom, taking the time to mount this careful preparation strategy just might help to elevate your international business above its competitors! Soaring profits can never be guaranteed, but doing what it takes to nourish your business from its roots is an excellent start as you expand internationally.