The internet literally brings home the idea of a globalised world, but e-businesses cannot afford to be complacent about the global customer when it comes to exporting. Here’s a guide on how to think global, act digital and create an international e-business.
One of the biggest myths in this digital age is that having a website is automatically a ticket to export. While it may be true that anyone in the world can potentially find and buy from you, it would be a fallacy to expect success if you simply believe ‘build it and they will come’.
E-business specialist David Turner, digital strategist for Xtensha, says one of the biggest mistakes businesses make is not having a strategy behind their web presence. It starts with the level of integration they want with the internet; for instance, some businesses use their website to attain new contacts but then close the deal in person, whereas others may instead want a fully-automated system where a potential customer can browse for and purchase a product, and have the back end take care of itself.
Have plan, will build
Turner says exporters need to “come at it with a business planning approach” because at the moment there’s a lot of misunderstanding about the medium: “There’s a gap between people talking in terminology from an industry perspective saying ‘blog’, ‘RSS’, ‘shopping carts’ and the business people understanding that. They don’t actually know how it works or how it could affect their business.”
As the former e-business adviser for Austrade, and with a previous role as e-business director for the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Turner saw many businesses needlessly throwing money at website developers. “Unfortunately they think, ‘we’ll get the web guy to build it and we’ll add a shopping cart’,” he says.
“They have to sit down and follow all the business planning rules: who are you targeting, what do they need, what’s the right marketing mix, is this a real market that we’re after, what are the benefits for the customer?”
The idea that the customer comes first is very strong in an online marketplace where positions on search engines and the role of social media advocates become increasingly important to capture the customer looking for what you can provide.
Convenience is king online, says Mohammad Khan, Australia Post’s international business development manager. “In a couple of seconds, customers can shop anywhere in the world. Today more than ever before, customers decide when, how and where to buy,” he says. “Customers with considerable spending power who no longer have time to spend their money are likely to go online and shop. SMEs need to understand this trend and cater for this market.”
Turner agrees that businesses needs to set up a website to serves the customer, not the business. One mistake he often saw was the website using the business’ language, not the customer’s: “They miss out on search engines because they weren’t targeting the right keywords.”
It also pays to understand your target market, he adds. It’s no good believing you sell to the world when an investment in one market could be more profitable.
“One day they get an order from Norway and they think of the opportunities without taking a step back and considering whether that’s the right market. Maybe that’s an anomaly,” explains Turner. “Or, it might be an okay market, but we only have X amount of resources, and we’d be better off putting it into Sweden because we could get 10 times the sales there.”
This is the difference between proactive and accidental e-business exporters, he says.
