Das Magazing deckte die wichtigsten Interessen eines jeden Online-Händlers ab, wie z.B. Tipps zur Shop-Optimierung, Bericht über Social Marketing oder auch rechtliche Themen. Viele Artikel sind mit einer Todo-Liste oder Checkliste versehen, damit die Umsetzung reibungslos klappt.

Preislich auch sehr attraktiv sind die 36 Euro fuer zwölf Ausgaben – ergänzt mit einer Datenbank mit Lieferanten, Großhändlern und Herstellern.

http://www.internethandel.de/

1. Learn from your competitors and edge in slowly

Like taking your first diving lesson, the key to a successful international expansion is to edge slowly forward, and know how you are going to jump in.

It is a rare eCommerce business that does not have a well established direct competitor in their same market already operating internationally. Taking a quick browse of this competitor’s website should give you clues as to where they targeted their efforts, and importantly, where they didn’t. After analysing your more established competitor, you will be able to see if they have already rolled out the red carpet to new markets, and if so, whether they offer basic localisation, specific language pages, or have indeed translated their entire website to engage with this new client base.

2. Localize and analyze

a. Currency

Once you have done your research and chosen a target country ripe for expansion, it is time to take the technical steps necessary to localise, and this starts with adding a new currency. For most eCommerce operations, adding a new currency should be very easy from the store admin, so go ahead and do this, ideally setting it to auto update against your base currency to maintain accurate rates. By the way, we’re going to assume for costs sake that you will still only take payment with your payment processor in your home currency, and simply show the new currency for display purposes only.

b. Language

Once the new currency is live, the next step is to see if, based on competitor research and your own internal data, some degree of language localisation will be necessary. Whether this is as simple as just translating key product page buttons and text along with shopping bag and checkout stages, or something all together more comprehensive is up to you, but the main barriers will be cost and technical implementation.

If you run a modern eCommerce shopping cart, there should be options to install language packs alongside your default store language. Usually free, they are community produced and quite simple to implement – visit the home page of your store platform to learn more. Whilst this solution is perhaps the most convenient, it might be a good idea to enhance the default language text that comes with the install pack with a little warmth and character, perhaps echoing your website style and copy. If translation help is what you need, visit http://www.mygengo.com as a great starting point for speedy and accurate translations – they rock.

Whilst translating website copy will be your main focus, it is important not to forget about your store’s email marketing communications. If you are an existing Mailbeez user, or are looking to automate email marketing efforts and don’t want your new international market to miss out, then take a look at our Mailbeez Multi-Language extension module, which easily allows you to send communications in your preferred language.

3. Personalize the experience

One of the big things in eCommerce for 2012 is personalization. Treating your customers as individuals is essential in the world of online business, and now more than ever the tools are here to let you do this.

As with your domestic market, post-sale activities such as requesting a product review, rewarding high spending customers for their loyalty, or following up on abandoned shopping carts is essential eCommerce behavior, all of which can be facilitated by the Mailbeez email marketing module framework in partnership with the aforementioned Multi-Language module. In one fell swoop, a Japanese customer could receive a personalized, automated reward coupon to put towards his next order; communicated fully in Japanese. A Spanish client could receive an email inquiring as to why they abandoned their bag, and enticed back with a personalized offer, all in their native language. The possibilities are truly endless.

4. Culture & colour

The Chinese see the colour red as symbolizing good luck and celebration, whilst Egyptians view yellow as a colour of mourning. The lesson here is that entering a new market without fully understanding the significance of colour to a national psyche would be a mistake. Take the time to do the appropriate culturally sensitive research, and as your business grows, marketing materials, printed matter and adverts will all benefit. You can read a more in depth analysis of colour here.

5. Logistics

The website is done, the email templates are translated, and the colours communicate your brand – you are ready for the world market. But wait, haven’t we forgotten something? Ah yes, the logistics of delivery.

Getting the product from your warehouse to the customer is the final important step, and one who’s success will make or break your overseas expansion. As this blog post is only concerned with the initial steps of internationalization, let’s assume that you are not expecting hundreds of orders a day (not yet anyway), but a steady stream. The answer to your logistical conundrum is to choose a shipping partner that is well represented in your target country. For example, UK eCommerce businesses rely overwhelmingly on Royal Mail to ship their packages, with the British postal service benefiting from excellent overseas relations and most importantly, partner postal service delivery in the destination country. As a postal service is not a courier, you will find both customs import issues and costs to be significantly eased over a more ‘serious’ courier partner. However, if your store sells bulkier items, you may have little choice than to speak to a courier, but rest assured that their rates will drop significantly as you increase your shipments.

International returns

As with domestic business, you will receive returns and exchanges from your new overseas customer base. How you handle these, and the costs associated with them will all impact on profit margins, and are best thought out well in advance of deployment to avoid providing a less than ideal customer service level.

We hope you found our little guide to eCommerce internationalization useful, and thank you for reading!

Mit Shopgate (www.shopgate.com) können Sie schnell, einfach und vor allem günstig eine mobile Webseite oder eine echte Shopping-App für iPhone, iPad, Android und Windows Phone erstellen. Ihr Online-Shop wird damit optimal auf Smartphones dargestellt und ist als App immer dabei, was zu mehr Traffic, erhöhter Kundenbindung und mehr Umsatz führt.

Profitieren Sie noch bis zum 31. Januar 2012 von reduzierten Bereitstellungsgebühren für alle Pakete: www.shopgate.com/de/fees.

Da Shopgate zudem im Bereich Mobile-Shopping der absolute Marktführer in Deutschland ist, kann Shopgate Ihnen auch eine umfassende Beratung dazu anbieten und Ihnen viele Tips z.B. für die sinnvolle Nutzung von QR-Codes geben. Shopgate nutzen bereits über 280 Händler, die von unserem Angebot profitieren.

MailBeez und Shopgate arbeiten an einer Integration beider Systeme, um auch Kunden, welche die Shopping-App nutzen, mit von MailBeez generierten persönlichen Nachrichten erreichen zu können.

Kontakt zu Shopgate

Andreas Rieger
Senior Business Development Manager

Büro Schweiz
Fraumünsterstrasse 25
8001 Zürich

Shopgate GmbH
Schloßstrasse 10
DE-35510 Butzbach (Germany)

Telefon: +49-6033-7470-13
Mobile D: +49-176-60872785
Mobile CH: +41-76-4408262
E-Mail: rieger@shopgate.com
XING: https://www.xing.com/profile/Andreas_Rieger4
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/andreas-rieger/46/2a4/25

Every story needs an ending

Whenever you reward or entice customers with a time limited offer, it is imperative to remember that it is not a one step process. Whilst you might feel pretty good once the emails are fired off, if you do not follow up on the offer with a timely expiry reminder, you are wasting a huge opportunity to generate extra revenue, and offer good customer service. What if a customer wanted to take advantage of your offer but simply forgot? Remember, if your customer’s inbox is as busy as yours undoubtedly is, getting noticed is a real challenge.

If a reminder isn’t sent, does the offer even exist?

Reminding customers about an offer is a time honoured tradition that every real-world (as opposed to virtual) salesman both recognize and utilize on a daily basis, and in the online world, whilst paper and pens have been replaced with their more modern equivalents, the same rules apply. Seasoned digital marketeers have even been known to state that an offer does not even truly exist unless the target group is reminded of its existence, which we guess is a marketing take on the classic ‘if a tree falls in the woods and no-one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?’ brain teaser.

Luckily, putting this all into practice is incredibly simple for Mailbeez users, who can wield the power of our Coupon Expiry Reminder module to great effect, allowing them to send timely coupon code expiry reminders based on store configured parameters.

When the time comes to create your next offer, or to review ongoing Mailbeez email campaigns, think about adding the Mailbeez Expiry Reminder module to your digital arsenal, and you can relax in the knowledge you are doing everything possible to generate the maximum amount of revenue from each campaign.

Start a rewards programme

With Mailbeez, starting your own rewards programme is actually incredibly easy, and begins with a super handy module we call Reorder Advanced. What this deceptively simple module does is to monitor how many orders a customer has placed, and when that number reaches a predefined level (1, 2 or even 3 orders over a certain time span for example) it fires off an email to the customer with an embedded personalized coupon code. The value of the coupon code is of course completely up to you, but let’s look at some examples that strike a good balance between reward and profit retention:

Suggested coupon: Offer 10% off their next order

Next steps

Once your rewards programme is in place, it’s time to tell your customers about it. Whilst we would hesitate to give explicit details of your rewards scheme, it is definitely a good idea to put some copy and images in and around your website and general emails stating that regular customers get access to discounts and offers first. Have a think about the phrasing and what you want to achieve, but do try to make your wider customer base aware that you value and reward regular custom.

Reward content creation

What is one of the first things you do when looking for something new at your favourite online store? Our guess is that you just said ‘look for product reviews’, and if not, it’s probably in your top 3 of things to do before pressing the all important buy button. For your own store, it is equally important that you have a rich, recent and relevant quantity of product reviews to aid the buying process, but did you realize that you can also reward review creators with a discount code or offer?

The Mailbeez Review Rewards module is a recent addition to the Mailbeez stable (just a phrase, we don’t actually have horses) that gives you the tools to reward review writers. It works by simply scanning for new reviews written since the last cron job was run, and firing off a fully personalized reward email with an embedded pre-defined coupon code to their creators.

When rewarding review writers, the key to deciding the discount coupon value to provide is to measure how much the review is actually worth to your store. Remember, search engines love new content, and orders will increase as more reviews are written, so we would suggest being quite generous with your reviews, and offering customers something that will keep them writing, and buying.

Tell the world

Just like for the order rewards programme for regular buyers, it is a really good idea to tell your customers about your new Review Rewards programme, and for this we would suggest putting a dedicated page on your site to explain more, peppering product pages with references to the rewards available to review writers, and finally making sure to include reference to it in your transactional emails.

From a brand new customer in two minds as to whether to make a purchase at your store, or simply as a means to retain regular customers and reward loyalty, your new rewards programme could be the deciding factor that tips the balance towards greater sales in 2012.

Based on the Mailbeez Email marketing framework (popular Zen Cart developer Numinix called it a Zen Cart top 10 module – view more here) ReferralHoney is a powerful email based rewards system, which consequently does not require any front end editing, 3rd party data sharing, affiliate commission or monthly fees – take a look at the comparison table below to see more about that.

Once installed and configured, the Mailbeez ReferralHoney module takes control of everything, presenting customers with invitations to refer friends alongside attractive share pages that are cleverly hosted on your store’s server, inviting the customer to spread the word on social networks and over email. Once a friend places an order, the original referrer is informed, again over email (automatically of course), and finally, rewarded at the end of the coupon cycle with their own reward.

If you have often struggled with other Zen Cart or 3rd party referral systems, or indeed if you are looking to generate increased sales without direct marketing costs, then you will find ReferralHoney a refreshing, simple to use Zen Cart module that really does get results.

ReferralHoney vs. Online System

	Online Service	ReferralHoney	Comment
Reward customers when they find new Customers			A simple, yet powerful way to motivate your customers to refer friends to your store
Social sharing			Easy social sharing on e.g. Facebook, Twitter
Email sharing			Customer can email their friends about the discount
Analytics			Get a full overview what is going on
Personalized share coupon			ReferralHoney generates personalized share coupons
Automatic expiration date			You configure e.g. "the share coupon is valid for 14 days" - done
Personalized reward coupon			ReferralHoney generates personalized reward coupons
Reward amount depending on referred orders			Create up to 3 levels of rewards for your customers based on the number of referred orders
Protection against fake-orders			Only approved orders based on defined order status' will receive rewards
Delayed reward			The referrer's reward is given after the expiration of their share coupon
Support multiple languages in parallel			Fully ready to support stores with multiple languages
Data protection			No Customer data is exported, & no transactional emails are shared with a 3rd party
Integration with shop system			ReferralHoney is 100% integrated into your eCommerce store system
Price	7.5% of Sales $15 min./month	One-time cost	Don't pay a penny in commission or get stuck with a monthly subscription.

In the second part of our mini-series on building an eCommerce brand, we will address our own fictional list of business observations that may very well mirror similar issues affecting your store, and in turn, analyze how each one either directly or indirectly affects a customer’s perception of your brand.

1. We discount too much

This question can lead to many more questions. Do you think you are discounting too much because profitability is being hit?, or because of the impact on your brand? If it is the first scenario, you probably already know why you are having to discount, and if it is the second, discounting is only a problem if you don’t want to be perceived as a budget, slash-happy store.

If your aim however is to be perceived in a better, less discount heavy light, then you need to address the multitude of reasons why such discounts are necessary in the first place, which leads us to the second point..

2. We don’t stock anything a customer couldn’t find elsewhere

Perhaps the greatest reason for heavy discounting is because as a store you have to price match against the competition. With online customers more price diligent than ever, selling a like for like product at a higher markup is nigh impossible, especially if your sector has a well developed online market offering a variety of attractive, easy to use sites with high customer service levels.

The answer then is to be different, and a rule of thumb here is to be at least 10% different in your inventory against the competition in order to increase profitability, reduce discounting, and enhance the perception of your store. Whatever your niche, sector, or even mainstream, mass appeal market, finding products that are not well represented is as easy as doing your research, contacting suppliers and making deals.

Whatever your success rate in sourcing new, untapped suppliers, the net effect will be a distinct upswing in how your brand is perceived in a crowded and competitive marketplace.

3. Our logo is really great!

Recognizing your store’s good points is essential, because knowing what to build from, and what to discard, can be the difference between eCommerce success and failure.

If your logo is universally liked, then use this building block to solidify the tone and look of your brand. Work with a designer to make sure every font and color is consistently represented across your site; not forgetting of course your store’s email marketing. Did you know that one of the main reasons a customer will unsubscribe or ‘junk’ your email is because the branding does not match the website’s design, leading the customer to believe they have never subscribed in the first place?

The benefit of all of this of course is that a recognizable brand is more likely to be remembered and returned to, far more so in fact than a thousand other ‘me too’ stores selling the same, or similar items.

4. We answer emails really fast, but sometimes don’t go the extra mile

Umm, why not? Going the extra mile is simply obligatory for eCommerce businesses, because in increasingly competitive times, there is no excuse not to do your level best to make sure that the customer is completely happy with your service.

If you are too busy to properly take care of this area, then why not look at using an enhanced level of organization or automation to handle some of your workload in order to free up some time? Mailbeez for example can fully personalize, automate and email all of your customers over a whole range of topics, from review requests, right though to winning back older customers after a pre-determined time span. For day to day customer service emailing, companies like Zen Desk offer the small to mid sized business owner competitively priced ticketing systems that make sure every customer receives a timely reply.

For your business, the effect of a more dynamic and vital customer service department is clear, and is an extremely easy and low cost way to stand out from the crowd.

5. Our customer base has grown over the past 6 months

Give yourself a pat on the back, and take an hour to think about what you want the next 6 months to be like. By taking charge of the direction your business is heading in, and by setting quantifiable targets, you create a conscious expectation of both revenue, growth and for the subject of the post, branding, that whether you realize it or not, you will begin to make reality.

6. We worry a lot more than we’d like to admit about cash flow

Cash flow is am issue for businesses both large and small, and one which has the potential to become a point of incredible stress for a business owner.

Like any obstacle in your way, cash flow issues must be tackled head on before it is too late. Our recommendation would be to employ the services of a 3rd party book keeping firm who can provide you with detailed cash flow analysis, management and profit and loss reports. If you are growing, these reports will both highlight problem areas, and if your business does require extra capital, satisfy the demands of banks or investors keen to understand more about your business.

If you do not manage to secure extra working capital, or fail to get a grip on your cash flow, you might well find that a revenue boost though extra sales is the only answer, sales that will be created though slashing prices. Once again, excessive discounting will seriously undermine your efforts to create a credible, desirable and in-demand brand.

7. We never have enough time for email marketing

Luckily, you don’t have to devote much time to email marketing these days, and instead can rely on increasing automation, personalization and a true ‘hands-off’ approach to meet your marketing aims.

From winning back older customers and delivering personalized offer coupons, to automating product review requests, birthday reminders or harvesting store feedback reviews, a system like Mailbeez has the power to really revitalize the way your business interacts with its customers.

Presenting a more professional face to your customers through attractive, dynamic and personalized email marketing will rocket your brand to the front of the eCommerce queue to your customer’s door, with all of the benefits that will ensue.

8. What the hell do we do with social media?

A good question, and one that many online stores are asking, especially in the face of research that suggests customers do not actually want to interface with brands on social networks.

Our advice would be to ensure that the branding of your Facebook & Twitter page matches your website, and that you respond quickly to any comments, and interact on a twice weekly, but certainly not daily basis with your followers. Other than that, the benefit of social media to eCommerce stores is a real elephant in the room, and one that quantifiable evidence for or against is impossible to come by.

Hopefully you have found this mini series useful, and either directly or indirectly, can see how a multitude of business issues can have a powerful effect on how you develop your brand, and in turn, how that brand is perceived by your customers.

Run withing the Mailbeez email marketing framework (popular Zen Cart developer Numinix called it a Zen Cart top 10 module – view more here) ReferralHoney is a powerful, personalized and refreshingly easy to use email based rewards system, which consequently does not require any front end editing, 3rd party data sharing, affiliate commission or monthly fees – justtake a look at the comparison table below to see more about that.

Once installed and configured, the Mailbeez ReferralHoney module runs fully automatically, presenting customers with personalized coupon invitations to refer friends alongside attractive share pages that are cleverly hosted on your store’s server. Your customers simply share their personal share page with their friend network over email or through the embedded social media links, and once a friend places an order, the original referrer is informed, again over email (automatically of course), and finally, rewarded at the end of the coupon cycle with their own reward. Think of it as a fully automated and personalized closed loop system that simply runs itself and generates its own reward and share coupons without manual intervention.

If you have often struggled with other osCommerce or 3rd party referral systems, or indeed if you are looking to generate increased sales without direct marketing costs, then you will find ReferralHoney a refreshing, simple to use osCommerce module that really does get results.

ReferralHoney vs. Online System

	Online Service	ReferralHoney	Comment
Reward customers when they find new Customers			A simple, yet powerful way to motivate your customers to refer friends to your store
Social sharing			Easy social sharing on e.g. Facebook, Twitter
Email sharing			Customer can email their friends about the discount
Analytics			Get a full overview what is going on
Personalized share coupon			ReferralHoney generates personalized share coupons
Automatic expiration date			You configure e.g. "the share coupon is valid for 14 days" - done
Personalized reward coupon			ReferralHoney generates personalized reward coupons
Reward amount depending on referred orders			Create up to 3 levels of rewards for your customers based on the number of referred orders
Protection against fake-orders			Only approved orders based on defined order status' will receive rewards
Delayed reward			The referrer's reward is given after the expiration of their share coupon
Support multiple languages in parallel			Fully ready to support stores with multiple languages
Data protection			No Customer data is exported, & no transactional emails are shared with a 3rd party
Integration with shop system			ReferralHoney is 100% integrated into your eCommerce store system
Price	7.5% of Sales $15 min./month	One-time cost	Don't pay a penny in commission or get stuck with a monthly subscription.

Name 5 brands. Got them? Now run through your list again, and we bet that at least one of your five is a retailer. If this retailer is so recognizable as to actually make your list, then perhaps they already sell a portion of their inventory in their own name. Nevertheless, their basic nature is to sell a multitude of products from many different brands under one roof and to promote themselves widely.

Why is this so interesting? Well, if you are a retailer, no matter how small your business truly is in comparison to the big guys in your sector, then you are responsible for a brand, and with it, the tools to truly differentiate your business from the growing number of competing start ups in the online retail world.

Now let’s play another game. Pick two nationally recognizable retailers in your country that sell the same products. Got them? Now without thinking about it, decide which one you would prefer to shop with. With your decision made, you have the answer to the question but also a clear insight into branding. Why did you choose one over the other? Because without doubt, you did make a choice, and understanding that choice and relating it to your business is crucial in determining the strengths and weaknesses of your brand.

Break out the pens and paper

Close your laptop lid, pull out the power cord to the computer, and break out the pens and pencils, you need some thinking time. To truly know your business and to understand how it can succeed against the competition, you need a clarity of thought that can only come from a lack of distractions; and as a retailer, you always have something to distract you.

On paper, write down a list of unbiased observations about your business. Don’t gloss over anything, and don’t leave any stone unturned, this is a time for truth, not marketing spin. Once you are finished, you will have a list of positive and negative points, an example of which could be:

• We discount too much
• Our logo is really great
• We don’t stock anything you couldn’t find elsewhere
• We answer emails really fast, but sometimes don’t go the extra mile
• Our customer base has grown over the past 6 months
• We worry a lot more than we’d like to admit about cash flow
• We never have enough time for email marketing
• What the hell do we do with social media? (Don’t worry, more businesses than you would believe are thinking the same thing)

You get the picture.

Ok, work time is over, go away and do something else and make sure to relax. Rest assured though, your brain will be carefully considering every point you just wrote down, and when you next come back to the list, and we post Part 2 of Building an eCommerce Brand next week, you will be ready to take action.