Local e-commerce rules, that you didn’t know about

International sales are a hard thing to achieve, due to cultural & technological differences. We use different tools to communicate, advertise and sale online in each region, as local platforms or payments are unique to each country. Here, we take solutions & behaviours that you should take into count, when making your business regional.

Local consumer behaviour

Let’s take the culture lesson and find out what kind of shopping sprees are the most popular online, what sells the most and how consumers react in each market. Taking China for example, the most revenue is made on the 11th of November, due to online Shopping Festival held by Alibaba. This event outnumbers even the U.S. Black Friday sales — $5.8 billion in sales compared to U.S. $3 billion, all just in online retail. Moreover, Christmass does not obviously sale all around the world — in India, we can experience the biggest rise in Diwali season, the festival of lights — families decorate houses, share gifts with each other and those in need. In India also, there are more trust issues, when coming to the payment systems. The most popular one — Cash on Delivery stays the most popular way of finalizing the deal. Trust is crucial in Brazil as well, since the platform Reclame Aqui made it to the most popular websites, by just publishing client’s complains.

Local SEM & SEO

This might come as a surprise to some of you, but no, Google has not conquered the world yet. As an US company, it might seem it’s used all around the english speaking countries, but there are other search engines that deliver similar functionalities in different countries. Russia has the popular Yandex — with similar to Google ads options, search panel or an attached e-mail. Then we have the Chinese Baidu, that integrates not only search engine, but build in encyclopedia, personal digital assistant service and can work offline. Microsoft’s Bing comes far behind the giants, but has a lot of products integrations and multimedia options too. Why it matters? Because in each engine there will be a different SEM & SEO required, and that’s one of the most crucial things in e-commerce.

Different Marketing Channels

Yes, we have just spoke about search engines, but there’s much more to advertising e-commerce online. There are some other online channels that offer interesting and online advertising solutions — mentioned earlier Baidu provides the largest local communication platform, although it resembles more likely an old fashion forum. The second largest Chinese communication funnel allowing ads is microblogging page Sina Weibo. Also, apps that allow free calls and messages, such as Line or BBM — they are local communicators, but that’s what makes them unique. Popular multi-sales local channels, such as Mercado Libre, Rakuten or Bonanza should be included in a well prepared ecommerce strategy too — they have different advertising options, and what’s more, ways to elaborate on products, make them shine through. Also, we have different press sources, of knowing how to run an online store, magazines and online portals, where banner ad could be a good marketing option.

Payment Methods

Local payment methods can make a huge difference — Visa & MasterCard are one option, but there are gateways, that are localised and tend to be recognisable just in one region. Take Worldpay for example — popular in U.S. & U.K. but much less than PayPal, making larger and larger successes in Spain. Online payment will move forward, as google wallet gains into interest & popularity — e-wallets are known in Mexico too by the name Mercado Pago — they include post-pay vouchers, or Indian OxiCash used on mobile devices (telephone number is the login too) as e-wallet. There are a lot of invoice methods, also local, that need to be integrated in a professional online retail platform, for the convenience of companies, mass orders or just non-personal shopping.

Customer Feelings

The local approach in e-commerce is by far the most crucial thing. What customers like to buy online, how often do they log into the web in order to look for retail products? What’s their shopping experience? In China, customers are generally satisfied with e-commerce — 68% of respondents were “happy or overjoyed” with their e-shopping, just 41% of Brits could say the same thing. Over 53% of Greeks are satisfied from their e-shopping. What do users like to buy in stores? Mostly drugs & health products — all around the globe people tend to trust pharmacies more than online retailers. Office supplies and electronics are mostly bought online in US, India and Brazil, developed platforms such as Amazon have large revenue out of groceries and videos too. This is a local thing, since Amazon is not so popular outside of UE & US.