Internationalisation

Once you’ve conquered your primary market and are looking to expand into new territories, how do you strategize to ensure a high-quality experience for a global audience, with the necessary local nuances to compete with home-grown competition?

Think carefully about resource – How is your team structured and what will workflows look like to support moving into new markets?  Will you have one central team and smaller splinter teams for international markets, or will there be an even distribution?  Is a departmental structure still relevant and if so, how does this tie in with international merchandising?  Where can rules be shared and where will a localised experience drive the most additional value?  Thinking carefully around this will help inform everything from how your data should be fed to Fredhopper and how your scope structure supports efficient merchandising with minimal manual effort.

 

Know your customer – What is important to customers in these new emerging markets and how is their behaviour different to your primary market?  What are the local events that should be added to your trade calendar to optimise the onsite experience?  Are your delivery propositions sufficient to offer a seamless customer journey?  What does profitability look like considering the varying average order value, cost of delivery and returns rate?  Having this information in mind when planning promotions and using brand mixes and pricing levers has the potential to add a significant amount to the bottom line.

Speak their language – how do customers shop, and which languages are important to them?  Is search optimised for multiple languages? How are translations managed and how do you ensure they of a high enough quality?  Is the tone-of-voice relevant and appropriate for this new audience?  Keeping a clear, consistent message across all touchpoints can secure loyal customers and grow your audience.

 

 

Curation and Inspiration – This is most pertinent to fashion customers, but are you using the same edits for all markets and how should these be tailored to suit a local customer?  White, black and red are all colours to avoid as a guest attending wedding ceremonies across the world, but styles, traditions and taste will also vary massively.  Keep an eye on local competitors and knowledge of market trends to ensure you don’t miss the mark.