Thanks to the digital revolution, it’s easier than ever to run a business across nations. You can easily have a presence in every corner of the world, but the key to having a successful multinational ecommerce businesses rests in using the right tools. The tools for running your multinational business in as streamlined a manner as possible exist, but the key is to use those tools to your best advantage.
In this guide, we’re going to discuss the various ways and tools you can use to successfully run your multinational ecommerce business.
1. Find What Works
The opportunities for running your international ecommerce business might seem endless, but the truth is that you’ve got to do a certain amount of experimentation to find out what will work best for your company.
Many ecommerce companies will leverage digital means to test the waters in various corners of the world. For instance, if you believe you’ve got a strong market in China, then you can easily set up a virtual office there and get to work. If things go well, it’s much easier to scale up from this point, but if things don’t go so great, then you can easily close up shop. This tactic works particularly well when you want to try various markets simultaneously.
Once you find the markets that will work for you, you’re ready to grow your company to the next level.
2. Localize
Running a multinational ecommerce business seems like a no-brainer, but if you want to run such a company, you’ve got to be able to fit in with your local market.
There are a number of ways you can do this without ever actually setting foot in your locale. For instance, using social media to set up a local page for creating content and gaining followers in a specific locale is a very simple way to localize.
Another great way to localize might be to create a blog with content specific for the area your site is targeting. It’s very important to at least have a landing page for each area you’re targeting, but this can also be accomplished with simple digital means.
3. Customer Support
A multinational ecommerce business doesn’t have to be a customer support nightmare. Thanks to leading-edge technology, such as the platform provided by ZenDesk, you can actually have your customer support needs in various locales taken care of. This ensures that customer support in multiple languages and time zones is seamlessly taken care of.
4. Remote Collaboration
If you’re running a multinational ecommerce business, then it’s important to be able to collaborate with your team members – no matter where they are. It’s critical to employ platforms such as Skype or GoToMeeting to ensure that everyone’s on the same page.
When it comes to project management, whether you’re creating content for blog and social media posts or launching a new product, platforms such as Asana are exceptional choices for letting teams create projects with deadlines. Your entire team can work together, using the web as a medium! Team conferencing is important to ensure that your multinational ecommerce company is running smoothly across the board.
5. Virtual Offices
As we mentioned earlier, many ecommerce companies will set up virtual offices in the countries where they want to test markets, but it’s a wise idea for multinational ecommerce companies to use virtual offices simply because they are cost effective and highly productive.
With a virtual office, you have a local presence. This ties in with the need to localize because it shows your customers that you do have a local, physical presence. Local virtual offices typically come with a mail forwarding address, so when you have this in place, you can get listed in local directories – which further lends to localization.
Virtual offices are powerful for a vast array of other reasons, too. For example, virtual offices offer a desk space for your team and for you, whether you’re there all the time or just for a drop-in visit. Virtual offices offer services like printing, copying, and faxing to assist in your various needs. Wifi means you can do everything you need in the office to ensure that your multinational businesses are taken care of. In addition, virtual offices typically offer some sort of virtual receptionist service.
A virtual receptionist can field calls, offer answering service, and even take care of a vast range of administrative duties.
Tying it All Together
Running a successful multinational ecommerce business is definitely possible, but it does take creativity and persistence. Using tools for collaboration, customer support, and communication will help keep your remote team on the same page, and virtual offices can make it easier for you to localize your ecommerce brand. There are a wide range of tools out there that can help you more easily work in international markets, including translation and multi-language apps. Other apps, such as currency conversion apps, can also be helpful in running a multinational ecommerce business.
To tie everything together, the main key to running a successful multinational ecommerce business rests in having a smart blueprint. You’ve got to have a plan in place for handling you company, including the finer points, and using digital tools, such as some of the ones we’ve outlined in this article, can help make your mission and overall goals a quick reality. Using virtual offices, virtual meeting room tech, video conferencing, and online collaboration tools is just good business sense. The technology is there, and it’s proven to help boost businesses. The applications in multinational ecommerce are simply amazing, and we can’t recommend them enough.
When you’re able to localize your ecommerce company while running everything remotely, you’ve got a wonderful recipe for longstanding success!
