On international ecommerce

A checklist for becoming a mature international ecommerce business. 

Since the Internet is inherently international, every ecommerce business must eventually decide how to support foreign customers. We thought it'd be helpful to share a list of improvements we believe every ecommerce company should make on its way towards becoming a mature international business.

The list is roughly sorted based on difficulty and importance. Items that are easier and more important are at the top. We suspect most businesses will implement these improvements from top to bottom.

1. Ship to foreign countries
2. Ship to foreign countries with tracking
3. Ship to foreign countries quickly and with delivery estimates
4. Estimate and charge for customs duties during checkout
5. Pay brokerage fees for the customer
6. Ship to foreign countries at a low cost
7. Support transactions in international currencies.
8. Support the metric system
9. Internationalize address forms
10. Internationalize text content
11. Internationalize video content
12. Provide customer support in foreign languages
13. Internationalize hosting
14. Operate in foreign countries and match the service levels provided domestically.

So far, our team at Sticker Mule completed items 1 — 5 and made progress on 6 (ship to foreign countries at a low cost). It’s likely we will add support for the Canadian Dollar in the next 3 — 6 months too.

This checklist represents a comprehensive process for becoming a mature international ecommerce business. Each item is annotated with information on how to approach it. Feedback? Post note or tweet @stickermule.