Selling products online has opened many opportunities for businesses to expand their reach and boost sales. Shopify, one of the best eCommerce platforms, has made it simpler for businesses to sell products worldwide, regardless of their location. With Shopify’s robust features and integrations, businesses can easily create an online store and reach customers worldwide.
Here, we will explain how to sell worldwide via Shopify, from setting up your store to optimizing for international sales and everything in between. So, whether you’re an established business or just starting, this guide will help you take your online sales to the next level.
But first, let’s discuss what Shopify actually is.
What is Shopify?
Shopify is a popular and reliable eCommerce website builder that everyone can use to create an online store or sell products on different platforms. They also offer point-of-sale software to use in physical stores.
Shopify is an all-in-one solution that provides payment processing, inventory management, shipping discounts, and even loans to eligible sellers. With a monthly fee ranging from $5 to enterprise-level pricing, most of Shopify’s features are included, but third-party apps may charge additional fees.
Steps to selling worldwide through Shopify
Here, we will explain essential steps on how to sell internationally via Shopify:
a. Identifying and targeting international markets.
When developing your Shopify store globally, it’s essential to identify the best geographic markets to target. While a “one size fits all” technique may seem appealing, different countries have unique browsing and buying habits.
To start, check the analytical data of your Shopify store, specifically the sessions by location report. This will help you to identify any international visitors and narrow down potential markets to investigate further. If you don’t have international traffic, it’s still worth identifying a few markets that may have demand for your products or services.
You must target markets that are geographically close or share native language/cultural similarities. All in all, it is necessary to understand your customers when selling online.
b. Make a localized experience.
Once you understand which market you want to target, the next step is localizing consumer experience in these markets. Although there are numerous nuances to localizing your website, there are some things you should ensure are in place. These are:
- Displaying content in the local languages: Well, content plays an essential role on your websites. This is because it helps your consumers better understand your products and services. For instance, if your target consumers speak other languages instead of English, in this case, you need to translate your content.
- Displaying prices in local currency: Do you know that many consumers prefer to shop for products on websites that cost in their local currency? This is why you ensure that the prices on your website are always shown in local currency. This can be done through conversion currency.
- Displaying correct details to the right consumers: Now you have your pricing and content localized, the next step is to ensure your target consumers see the right product and price, i.e., based on their locations.
If you build a Shopify store, you can do this quickly with the help of apps. You can select an app according to your requirements.
For instance, you can use Auto Currency Switcher or other multi-currency apps to display pricing based on your customer’s location. Apps such as Transcy not only help with displaying content in local languages but also offer local currency options. Additionally, there are other translation apps available for you to explore.
Making a localized experience for international shoppers increases their chances of purchasing from your store. To achieve better results, installing the Geolocation pop-up before any other promotional messaging or pop-ups is essential. For optimal performance, it is perfect to use a modal pop-up in the center of the screen, as this has been found to have the highest rate of acceptance from buyers.
c. Set up your business to accept international payments.
Accepting payments is critical in differentiating an eCommerce store from a regular website. To develop your business across borders, you must ensure your store is configured to accept international payments. While RazorPay offers international payments to merchants who meet specific criteria, it’s advisable to use high-trust or locally recognized payment gateway providers like PayPal for better conversion rates.
d. Provide international shipping.
The essential part of the buying experience is how your consumers will receive their products.
Typically, international shipping is going to be more costly, so consider the below strategies to remove friction for your new shoppers:
- To ensure a smooth shipping experience, you must check the prices and options offered by your chosen carrier. Be sure to confirm that they ship to your desired market and provide clear pricing information. Using carrier-calculated shipping, test the international checkout process to simulate the buyer experience.
- Transparency is critical to building trust with buyers. Make sure to communicate shipping speeds in your product descriptions so that consumers know what to expect. Consider adjusting your product prices for the target audience to offset the cost of offering cheaper shipping options.
- When shipping to certain countries or regions, it’s essential to be aware of tax obligations. For example, if you’re shipping to the United Kingdom and your package is valued at under £135, you must collect and pay VAT to the UK government. By being mindful of these details, you can provide a better experience for your consumers and avoid any unnecessary complications.
e. Marketing and advertising.
If you have taken the time to localize your online store for international visitors, also remember to localize your marketing efforts. Advertising can help you attract traffic from your global target market and test out your local experience while driving demand. It’s a great way to maximize your efforts and reach a wider audience.
Make the buying process simpler for new consumers, especially those from different countries or regions, to target international buyers through various advertising channels.
For example, if you’re using Facebook Ads Manager, split your ads into different campaigns for new buyers. In addition, make sure that your copy and imagery are localized and that the destination URLs reflect the international domains set up for each market.
Apart from Facebook, there are other online channels. Invest time in localizing your advertising for these channels to target customers. If you use dynamic retargeting with Facebook or Google, ensure your campaigns display the local prices and language preferences of buyers. Make a product feed from Shopify that supports multiple currencies and languages. You can use DataFeed Watch, or Multiple Google Shopping feeds for Google.
Selling worldwide on Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus is perfect for large-scale businesses as it offers various tools to enhance global selling capabilities. In addition, it includes all the standard features of Shopify for international selling, such as currency, language, pricing, and shipping settings.
With Shopify Plus, you can build up to 9 expansion stores, making it simple to duplicate your store for each market as part of your international selling strategy. While this approach requires additional effort, careful planning, and consideration, it ensures that you have complete control over each region where you want to sell your products.
Multi-store selling globally with Shopify
If you want to sell your store’s products worldwide through Shopify, you have two options:
- Use a single store
- Or create multiple stores dedicated to each region you want to target.
However, if you choose the multi-store approach, you need to consider some essential things.
One of the main benefits of having a separate Shopify store for each country or region is full control over everything in the store setup. This means you can offer unique products and tailor your campaigns, imagery, and style to each market. In addition, having control over the content and copy allows you to adjust your tone of voice to effectively target specific international markets.
While it is possible to have unique products and content in one store, it can be challenging to manage if everything is mixed in one Shopify account. You can run multiple non-Plus stores and use geolocation technology to redirect them based on the user’s location. If you use Shopify Plus, you can have up to 9 additional stores at no extra cost.
Conclusion
Selling worldwide via Shopify requires careful planning and execution. This guide has highlighted some essential steps that should be taken to ensure success, including identifying international target markets, making it easy for international customers to pay, setting up international shipping, localizing your store, finding and validating product ideas, setting up an online store, and using advertising.
By following the above-mentioned points and using the resources and guides available, you can create a roadmap for starting an ecommerce business and achieving profitability. With dedication and effort, selling worldwide via Shopify can be a lucrative business opportunity.