1. Market Attractiveness. Bustos reminds online entrepreneurs about the necessity of research. For example, consider the varying cultural perceptions on the type of wares or services that you sell. Different cultures also have different attitudes and expectations about spending money online, particularly where pricing and shipping are concerned. The writer cites the example of Overstock’s lesson on how the UK market expects prices inclusive of shipping charges after they have received complaints. Another type of research you should do is competitive research–“both for competitors in your ‘home’ country that have forayed into the new market, and the new market’s domestic players.” Bustos suggests answering these questions to help you get started on building the data. Will your brand be recognized? Is there a domestic brand you could acquire? Have your home country competitors successfully built awareness? Are they mentioned in social media? Do their localized sites attract customer reviews? Aside from your own web analytics, the writer also recommends gathering data from market and customer surveys as well as consultancy firms.
2. Legal. This is a tricky course to navigate but legal considerations are an absolute must when doing business on an international level. Be aware of regulatory issues in your target country and invest in a good legal counsel to help you work your way around it. According to Bustos, some of the key areas you need to cover are sales tax collection and disclosure, pricing, merchant account, payment collection, security and privacy regulations.
3. Operations. Here you should be able to answer questions such as how will you fulfill your product? Do you resort to drop shipping? Do you need to source out local vendors? Are you going to use landed warehouses or retail stores? Bustos also mentioned partnering with a company which specializes in cross-border logistics.
4. Organizational. In terms of managing your business, how will you delegate responsibilities? Will you need an Internet marketing team? Do not forget to consider differences in time zones and language.
5. Technological. Bustos asks the following questions: Does your existing platform support international expansion? Can you add multiple stores using your current license? Can the platform handle foreign character sets, multiple currencies, date formats, checkout fields (postal code format, VAT etc), new payment methods or single sign-on for customers who wish to shop both your .com and local sites? What 3rd party technologies like geolocation and content delivery networks are required to deliver tip-top user experience?
6. One site or multiple sites? As an e-commerce merchant, you should decide whether it is best to serve your new international clients from one centralized site or to create separate sites for each local market.
