Cross-Border E-commerce: Hannah Hill Of Kidaroos On Best Practices For Cross-Border E-commerce
An Interview With Rachel Kline
Currency. It probably goes without saying, you should let users pay in their own currency via familiar payment platforms. There is a reason why mobile traffic converts at a lower level than desktop traffic (whichever country you operate in), people are adverse to making payments outside of their comfort zone and want to feel secure, it’s a big decision parting with your hard earned cash.
As the global marketplace continues to expand, cross-border ecommerce has become an essential avenue for businesses seeking growth and new opportunities. However, navigating the complexities of international markets and cross-border transactions requires a strategic approach and a deep understanding of best practices. In this interview series, we aim to connect with ecommerce experts, international business strategists, global logistics specialists, payment processing professionals, and anyone with valuable insights into “Ecommerce Experts on Cross-Border Ecommerce Best Practices”. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Hannah Hill.
Entrepreneur, and mother of three, Hannah is an e-commerce and toy expert and is always looking for new, innovative ways to keep everyone’s kids active and energised in a world full of screens and social media.
Thank you so much for your time! I know that you’re super busy. Before diving in, our readers would like to get to know you. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory and how you grew up?
I’m not much of a creative writer, but here goes… I grew up on the border of London and Kent in England, my upbringing was relatively uneventful, I’m sorry to say, but I have always had a strong immediate family which has stood me in good stead and supported me throughout my career.
What led you to this specific career path?
Back in 2005, whilst I was working in the printing sector for a web2print company, I was first introduced to SEO. I remember thinking to myself that the web and SEO in particular was an opportunity for the little folk to realise their dreams of starting a successful business. It really sparked something off inside me which has led me to where I am today.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
UX, UX, UX! We have some really exciting UX projects in the pipeline, but they are top secret at the moment! I’m a true believer that great UX is the key to really solving problems for people.
You’re a successful business leader. What are three traits about yourself that you feel helped fuel your success? Can you share a story or example for each?
I’m very introspective, I think it’s really important to know your own weaknesses. I quickly realised that one of my negative traits is the tendency to give up too easily when the going gets tough. I turned this on its head and became very stubborn! Running a business will always present challenges, and when I come up against those challenges, I remind myself of the famous lines from the Rocky films, it’s not how hard you hit, it’s how hard you can get hit and get back up. Data… I’m extremely data driven which has thankfully brought lots of success, I’m also an Agile enthusiast and getting feedback (data) from users early is something that has allowed me to take my business to the next level time and time again. When it comes to making an important decision I always reach for the data. I would highly recommend the books The Lean Startup (Eric Ries), Hooked (Nir Eyal) and Scrum (Jeff Sutherland).
Excellent, thanks so much for sharing that. I want to shift gears and talk about ecommerce. What was the original vision for your ecommerce business? What pain point(s) were you trying to solve for your customers?
That’s easy, I wanted to create an e-commerce business that gave me the freedom to do what I love, make and implement digital strategy (and enjoy my young family). In terms of pain points We’ve come up against loads, and I have always found that solving them has brought increased revenues. For example, when we first started Kidaroos we had lots of enquiries from parents that wanted a personalised number plate with their kids ride on cars (you may know them as Power Wheels in the US). Instead of directing customers to eBay, we put the appropriate supply chain in place and allowed users to order a number plate whilst ordering their toy. This increased conversion rates significantly and was a perfect example of the lean feedback loop.
When expanding your ecommerce business internationally, how do you determine the right balance between localizing your offering (tailoring products, prices, and promotions to each market) versus maintaining a consistent global brand presence?
Simply put it’s 50/50, certain business and digital marketing aspects are cross-border such as pricing strategy and SEO. However relevancy drives conversions and it’s always important to speak to customers on their terms. One great example of this is language; a BBQ in South Africa is know as a braai, and whilst working for an international removals company before starting my own business, simply changing this product label dynamically for South African users increased conversion rates dramatically. However I have found that UX doesn’t carry over borders; western UX works great in the US and European markets, but put that same UX in front of Asia-Pacific users and you do not get the same results, so UX definitely has to be localised. Another point worth mentioning, if you are operating in the Far East and have a social media plan, WeChat and especially Redbook (xiaohongshu) are platforms you should be active on.
How do you approach understanding and adhering to the regulatory frameworks and trade tariffs of different countries, and what tools or resources do you recommend?
To be honest, in our mildly globalised world, we do not come up against many country specific regulatory barriers. It would probably surprise your readers to learn that the US is probably the hardest market to operate in. The USA hasn’t adopted the European style GDPA regulations meaning that data regulation is very mild, but, in typical fashion, to counter that, each state has different tax regulations meaning it can be a bit of a minefield trying to satisfy 50 different tax systems! Although there are various software packages on the market to help business owners overcome this.
How do you determine which payment methods to support in a new market, given that payment preferences can vary from country to country?
Again this isn’t really much of an issue, we use Stripe and PayPal for our US and European markets and Alibaba and WeChat for our Asia-Pacific markets. One observation I have noted in recent years is that payment methods such as Apple Pay and Google Pay have increased in usage, and I predict they will become more important to e-commerce outfits.
Ok super. Here is the central question of our interview. What are your five best practices for cross-border ecommerce?
1 . Agile. The Agile methodology produces results no matter what market you are operating in. Getting early feedback from your users and acting on it is always a recipe for success. We use Agile in every aspect of our business, both internal and customer facing. Agile also allows business owners to adapt to each market conditions quickly.
2 . Hreflangs (<link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”zh-gb” href=”https://www.yourwebsiteforchinesepeopleintheuk.com/zh-gb/" />). The SEOs in the room might switch off at this point! However I would say that implementing correct hreflang html code is only the first (obvious) step. Actually making each country specific page you serve to Google relevant to that country is really important. We had one instance where our country targeted pages were too similar and Google took it upon itself to serve our New Zealand customers our Thailand home page (in Thai *faceplam*). In short; make it country relevant, don’t leave it too Google to decide.
3 . Currency. It probably goes without saying, you should let users pay in their own currency via familiar payment platforms. There is a reason why mobile traffic converts at a lower level than desktop traffic (whichever country you operate in), people are adverse to making payments outside of their comfort zone and want to feel secure, it’s a big decision parting with your hard earned cash.
4 . Local outreach. Make great content for the markets you operate in, and then outreach for backlinks to websites within that market. If you’re operating in the Thailand market, having great backlinks from authoritative Thai websites will benefit your SEO much more than higher authority websites in other countries.
5. Local market research — whilst it does take longer than a general research plan, ensuring you are aware of who your competition is in each market is vital. This allows you to price your offer competitively in each market and comes with an added bonus; if you spot that one of your competitors has brought a fantastic innovation to market, you take that innovation into your other markets.
What are the best practices for managing international shipping, handling returns, and dealing with customs? How do you decide whether to use local fulfillment centers versus shipping internationally from a central location?
API’s (application programming interfaces) are your friend. Any reputable logistics partner will have an API, take advantage of it to minimise manual work, and maximise scaleability. If they don’t have an API, move on.
How can ecommerce businesses effectively provide customer support in multiple languages and time zones? What are some pitfalls to avoid when setting up international customer service operations?
There is no easy answer to this one. If you want to provide a relevant CX you have to allow your customers to communicate with you on their own terms, unfortunately, this may involve extra overheads, but it will pay off in the long term.
How do you decide which products to introduce in a new market? Are there certain product categories that universally perform well, or is it highly market-dependent?
There will always be certain products that perform well across borders, these tend to be the more generic products, however we’ve generally found the bestsellers in each country vary dramatically; for example in the UK our Range Rover ride on cars fly off the shelves, but we hardly sell any in the US. When it comes to choosing products the first place I always go to is the search volumes, this gives me great insight into product demand in each country, tools like Ahrefs and SEMRush are great for this.
Looking ahead, what are the biggest challenges and opportunities in cross-border ecommerce, and how do you plan to address them in the coming years?
In terms of challenges, I would say data regulations are going to change a lot in the future, as data becomes more valuable, governments will continue to legislate on how businesses can use it. It going to be important to stay on top of the changing landscape. That brings me nicely on to the next challenge, security. The techniques used by hackers are growing more and more sophisticated, so your defence against this has to be equally sophisticated. When it comes to opportunities I would say emerging software is going to allow business owners to do more things easier and for less cost. A great historic example of that would be Zapier, if an e-commerce business wanted to plug into an external supplier via an API in the past, they would have to hire developers to write the code, now most APIs can be connected using platforms like Zapier for a fraction of the cost.
You are a person of significant influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
Crikey, that’s a deep question! I think a movement that helps people achieve their aspirations (no matter what they may be) would do a whole lot of good. The world is generally a better place when people are fulfilled and thriving.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
To be honest, I don’t soo much online apart from growing my business, juggling a young family and a business doesn’t leave much wriggle room, and to be honest I’m quite a modest person, so speaking about myself doesn’t come naturally.
I want to thank you so much for your time and for sharing your expertise with us. I wish you continued success!
