Most people assume that you have to have a massive multinational company to be able to sell at a worldwide level. However, it is entirely possible to do so using just a small business, where you could even be the only employee. If you have a smaller business, it is also important that you max out your potential earnings and begin to sell worldwide. Here are some of the ways you can do so.
Set Up Your Site
First of all, you need to make sure that your site is properly set up. This goes far beyond simple things like page design and your choice of SEO tactics. You need to make sure that you are properly supporting people of all nationalities when they come to your page.
The best place to start is with your ecommerce plug-in. You need to find one of the best ecommerce platforms as this will have the functionality you need to be able to sell to other people. With so many ecommerce platforms to choose from, you need to make sure that you find one that appeals to you and your needs. With every business have different needs, it is incredibly important that each company finds the one that best works for them. It should also have some sort of functionality that is built for handling transactions in different currencies, and other small changes that you are going to need.
It might be worth looking at your analytics to see where most of your international buyers are from. If they come from a predominantly non-English speaking country, adding a version of your website with their most popular language is such a small gesture but it is one that will be incredibly welcome. Small inclusions like this and multiple currencies can help to build your reputation with the international community.
Know the Laws
The last thing you want is for a product to get stopped at the border and some issue be raised with your company or the customer. Some countries have incredibly strict import/export laws that always need to be obeyed. When you first send a package to a country, you might not be aware of most of these. However, this form of complacency is not good enough, and it is a form of carelessness that can land you in serious trouble.
It is worth speaking with the right sort of lawyer who can advise you on the steps you need to take to be able to offer your products in a certain country. For one thing, any accreditations you might currently have might not be valid in the new country. To be able to sell, you will have to submit your products to their authoritative body for further testing.
The right lawyer should be able to inform you of all steps you need to take. It is up to you as the business owner to make sure that you are always compliant, and a little bit of research can help steer you towards the paths you should take.
Get on Social Media
A traditional brick-and-mortar store has the advantage of word of mouth and passing footfall to help generate sales. A store that operates online does not, so you have to take advantage of some of the tools that could generate a digital footfall for you.
One of the easiest ways is through social media – particularly with platforms like Instagram. The Explore Page is a brilliant tool that could bring you on the radar of so many new customers. What’s more, a social media profile like this is just the thing you need to boost your brand’s presence. It can be used to offer sneak peeks to your customers and other people who might be interested to see what you are up to. Whether you are reposting content from fans or teasing the very next big release you have planned, doing it through social media allows you to reach out to customers both new and loyal all over the world.
Make Response Times Clear
If you have a very small workforce, you are not going to be able to offer 24/7 response times for customer enquiries. Though this is a very noble goal, you need to recognise that there is a time and a place to do it in. You need to make sure that the infrastructure is first in place to help you to respond to other complaints as and when you need to.
Before you are able to offer 24/7 support, you need to make your response times incredibly clear on your contact page. Don’t forget to include your time zone in addition to the period of time. It would be incredibly frustrating for someone to think that they are being ignored when they are actually just halfway around the world from you.
To help mitigate some of this, setting up automatic replies might be a great move. There are so many ways that you can tackle running a business that can cover other countries, but you do need to make sure that you are communicating these differences to your customers, wherever they might be.
The World is Yours
The internet truly is a joyous thing that allows us to reach out to companies all across the world. No matter where a business might be based, it has the potential to sell something to someone who is literally on the other side of the world. However, you as a business owner needs to make sure that this company of yours is always compliant, and always prepared to deal with those issues and hiccups that might come when running a business of this scale.
Can you run a small business on an international platform? Absolutely! So many people are already – so you can be certain that you are in some excellent company. Make sure that your protocols and responses are of the highest of standards, and you should be able to tackle any issue that might come your way head-on.
