Recently Glopal was officially named as a Google Premium Partner and part of Google’s export portal. To celebrate, we launched an exclusive international expansion program which is designed to help merchants expand into new international markets

The response has been overwhelmingly positive and many high growth merchants have joined the program. The number one reason cited by merchants to join the program was how it was able to 

If you are interested in joining the program, submission is still open. You can find more information about what the program is, and how you can get involved here.

What international challenges are Merchants facing?

The program has helped to further highlight key challenges merchants face and we’ll take a deeper dive into those challenges below and how to overcome them.

64% - Finding international buyers

64% of respondents found that finding international buyers was a difficult challenge to expand internationally. 

• Why is this important?

This is one of the biggest challenges merchants face. You can put as much time and effort in improving the conversion rate of your store, but if you cannot discover new buyers then the whole system ceases to function.

There are two more efficient ways to ramp up your efforts in finding international buyers:

1. International SEO
2. International marketing Campaigns

International SEO 

International SEO activities help search engines better understand what countries and languages the website’s content is for. This should result in the improved quality of search results so specific audiences see the most relevant content.

For example, online shoppers from France should land on ecommerce sites in the French language and with product prices listed in euro.

Mastering global SEO techniques should increase your global online presence and maximize your conversion rates. Effective & efficient planning of your international SEO strategy is fundamental.

It may seem overwhelming at first, but it’s much simpler if you start at the beginning and improve your international SEO step-by-step.

We’ve put together an ebook with tips to guide you through improving your SEO to drive traffic to your store.

46% - Offering Competitive shipping rates

The last 2 years have seen a wide range of impacts to global delivery services, costs & time to delivery which has caused 46% of merchants to struggle to offer competitive shipping rates.

Events such as Brexit, the EU VAT changes, economical & environmental blockages and a high demand for cross-border deliveries thanks to a series of worldwide lock downs spanning over a year, there’s been a lot of strain on delivery providers. 

• Why is this important?

Competitive shipping rates add even more struggles for merchants as delivery cost can often be the difference between a transaction conversion, or an abandoned shopping cart in the check out.

Improving your delivery strategy can go a long way in being able to offer competitive rates to your buyers.

We’ve put together a guide on 5 ways you can improve your delivery strategy and start being able to offer more competitive rates to your customers.

37% - Providing taxes & duties at checkout

Ensuring customers receive the right buyer experience is vital for repeat business, especially in markets with higher competition. One of the more frequent upsets to customers is a surprise duties fee at customs, where buyers may have to pay more than expected.

• Why is this important?

By providing taxes & duties into your checkout, customers can prepay for everything up front and receive no unexpected surprises when their order is being delivered.

Integrating an automated international Taxes & Duties solution to your checkout can take this process even further and help to automate the whole process of customs from correctly classifying all products, to automating the documentation process, rather than solely collecting the fees. 

A tax and duty solution can: 

• Provide Total Landed Cost in the checkout
• Correctly classify products
• Ensure restricted products don’t get sold into the wrong countries
• Entirely automate the Customs Documentation process

35% - Localizing the webstore

One of the quickest but most effective ways to maximise international sales is localizing your site and marketing campaigns.

However, localizing the webstore can be a laborious but also time consuming task, without the right resources in place or using key automation tools, merchants can really struggle to implement this into every international market in an efficient manner. 

• Why is this important?

An effective localized experience is making available accurate translations of  product descriptions, campaigns and web stores in the buyer’s local language; offering taxes and duties information in the check out; and payment options that they would expect to use in their home country. 

This creates credibility, comfortability and trust with buyers and by providing the localized experience as close to their normal native experience as possible, you can significantly improve the chances of higher conversions across all markets.

But with 35% of merchants facing this challenge, is there a more efficient way to localizing the web store?

One of the quickest and most effective methods to improving conversion rates is with lean localization.

Lean localization is an agile and iterative approach that helps identify the quickest and most effective ways to start converting international buyers. It’s about prioritizing the things that will have the biggest impact, in the shortest implementation time. 

Learn more about lean localization here.

20% - Translating marketing campaigns

Translating marketing campaigns was the less frequent challenge for merchants, but with ⅕ of all struggling to translate marketing campaigns, it’s still a problem and a vital cog in the international ecommerce sales machine.

• Why is this important?

Utilizing International marketing campaigns are one of the most effective methods to discover new buyers. However, like localizing the website, it can be daunting and appear difficult.

Our suggestion is to start with a few markets and one marketing channel, such as Google’s Shopping Ads or Facebook’s Ads platform, start small and work your way up to further markets and more campaigns.

The simplest and most time efficient way would be to adapt a localization solution similar to the webstore localization, that also translates all marketing campaigns and creates a really effective but powerful impact onto your global sales growth.

There are things you can do yourself to translate marketing campaigns and begin selling into global markets.

Interested in learning more about how you can get started with International campaigns? Check out below for Shopping Ads or Facebook Ads.

Getting started with international Shopping Ads campaigns

Getting started with international Facebook Ads

We hope these help you to overcome any challenges with translating marketing campaigns.

Overall there’s not just one, but several challenges merchants can face at any one time. It’s important to ensure your store is set up to sell into any international market.

Dealing with one of these challenges may be possible, but once several stack up it can be really time intensive and difficult for merchants to overcome these in a cost effective manner.

This is why Glopal has launched the international expansion program.

Supported by Google, the program is designed to help merchants expand into new international markets and overcome specific global challenges presented for their store.

How to join the international expansion program?

To register interest into the international expansion program, you will need to fill out a quick questionnaire, to assess where in the international journey you are and highlight which areas of international expansion Global can assist you in.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the program about?

Each quarter we work alongside with our partner Google and onboard a limited number of online stores to grow their sales by 4x and overall sales by 32%. Your store can benefit from this opportunity.

How can you enroll in this program?

To begin, you’ll need to complete a short questionnaire to get started. It will only take a few minutes. 

How much does it cost?

There’s no catch, no credit cards, no commitment. Simply put, it’s a partnership opportunity where the Glopal and Google team help stores launch in new international markets and increase sales. The program offers a freemium option that enables you to expand into new markets instantly.

How do we increase your sales?

Our team at Glopal helps both small and large brands enter and succeed in new international markets through our end-to-end localization technology and marketing services. Our localization platform translates all of your marketing campaigns & webstore into the language of your target markets, and enables your buyers to pay in their local currency as well as pay for taxes and duties at check out.

How long until we can get started?

The localization solution enables you to start selling internationally within 2-3 business days and you can start seeing an increase to your international sales within a week.