The ultimate guide to unlocking global growth: part two

Retailers have never had easier access to international consumers – as demonstrated by the rise in British exports.

In a record-breaking year, UK companies exported £689bn worth of goods and services in 2019 via ecommerce and stores, up 5% on the previous year, according to data from the Office for National Statistics. Within that, exports to non-EU countries increased by 14%.

This rise in exports is only expected to continue. Market research company eMarketer forecasts global ecommerce sales will grow to $5.2tn by 2023, up from an anticipated $3.9tn in 2020.

PwC leader of industry for consumer markets Lisa Hooker predicts a sustained shift to ecommerce: “In the medium term, all consumer markets will have been disrupted by online challenges. In response, traditional retailers are now investing in their own multichannel capabilities and/or leveraging online marketplaces such as Amazon, Zalando, Next Label and Asos marketplace.

“In the longer term, there is likely to be some convergence. For example, online players are exploring selective footprints and offline players are exploring different online models."

Hooker continues: “Direct-to-consumer and marketplace [models] in particular have the benefit of scalability and exportability across multiple territories. This is particularly important at a time when growth in any one developed country will be limited by the current economic climate."

Ecommerce resilience

British bricks-and-mortar brands once watched ecommerce’s experimental infancy play out from a safe distance, seemingly unshakable in their commitment to tried-and-tested traditional retail.

However, the tide has changed and long-standing retailers are now scrambling to keep up with the digital wunderkinds that so suddenly usurped them.

For instance, in Loqate’s 2019 International Retail Index, which ranked the top 30 retailers for global trade, marketplace titan Amazon sat confidently in first place, while pureplay retailers Asos and Boohoo and ecommerce platform Zalando were in the top 10.

Fast forward to 2020 and the pandemic has upended the retail sector further, with Berg asserting that “digital transformation is no longer optional. Covid will finish what Amazon started.”

Reflecting on these recent events, Hooker says that “brands and retailers with reach in multiple territories and across multiple touchpoints have proved more resilient through the Covid-19 crisis, particularly given the divergence across countries in terms of the speed and ultimate robustness of recovery".

Yet, while market entry can be as simple as setting up an eBay or Amazon account, developing a comprehensive international ecommerce strategy is non-negotiable for lasting success overseas.

There are numerous routes to market when expanding an overseas ecommerce offering, from standalone websites selling directly to consumers, to partnerships with established brands in new markets. Retailers must use data, market research and testing to hit on the optimal combination.

Those retailers with true mastery of international ecommerce collect masses of data for each new territory and are then able to localise the customer journey, from targeted content marketing and social media, to local payment options and speedy, convenient fulfilment.

In the following chapters, we analyse the strategies of British retailers investing in overseas ecommerce markets and explore how others can follow in their footsteps.

1. Keeping overheads low

According to Dattani, the logistics and infrastructure for cross-border ecommerce is far more accessible than many believe, and overheads don't need to become high.

Mo Bro’s went global after realising their online shop, at the time just for UK customers, could tap into millions of potential customers globally by simply opening their checkouts to different markets.

After receiving “loads of orders” from Europe, they began to develop their international ecommerce strategy.

This strategy now incorporates direct sales through the Mo Bro’s website and sales through several third-party platforms. While the business “is strongest direct”, Dattani says sales have been solid on marketplaces, especially during the coronavirus crisis.

“What we’ve found in the past few months across every marketplace we use, including Amazon and eBay, is a sales uplift. Fruugo is another international marketplace (launched more recently) where we’ve seen a real surge in demand; it’s purely down to Covid-19 that we have had this rise.

“It has accelerated the digital revolution and there has never been a more important time to make the shift to ecommerce”, Dattani concludes.

2. Collaborating with suppliers

For Mo Bro’s, the pandemic has highlighted how paramount supplier relationships are as sourcing during Covid-19 has raised lots of new challenges for the business.

“Some of our manufacturers stopped trading due to the coronavirus and when they resumed trading they had a backlog of work which meant some of our orders were put on hold. Our grooming scissors sold out in the first four weeks [of lockdown] and we’ve not been able to source the same quality from other manufacturers,” comments Dattani.

“We’ve also had to substitute items purely because of issues in the supply chain. For example, we’ve been ordering our core bottles for beard oil from the same supplier for the past six or seven years consistently but because of the demand for hand sanitiser, we’ve had to wait and negotiate with them.”

While the brand has faced challenges across the supply chain, the pandemic has opened doors to new cross-border supplier partnerships.

“The US has always been a market that we’ve been looking to expand into and demand we’ve seen from there during the pandemic has highlighted that, as soon as we’re ready, we can start distributing locally. We’re now speaking to a distributor in Las Vegas so we can be on the ground there as this will help us overcome the issue of the time it takes to deliver to the States.”

3. Partnering with DIT for export expertise

Mo Bro’s has been working closely with DIT, a government department that assists companies with building their export strategies. The support offered includes helping retailers develop their cross-border ecommerce strategies, free expert advice through its network of ecommerce advisers and providing access to a unique marketplace finder tool.

The founders approached their local international trade adviser to access DIT. “From day one we’ve had the support of getting the insights we need to be able to grow our business,” Dattani says. DIT afforded the business access to “a whole network of individuals with varying skillsets”.

Dattani also says that support during the pandemic has been key: “We've been getting help with developing our ongoing commitment to grow British exports and to revise our strategy. We’ve been kept up to date with the latest information on new trade agreements, funding and international development opportunities.”

4. Making data-driven decisions

Using data provided by DIT, Mo Bro’s has been able to gain an understanding of overseas consumers and research different markets before deciding to roll out in the US, India, Germany and France.

Dattani says: “It’s all well and good going with your gut feeling [to launch in a new market], but when you’re able to get data and information from your local trade adviser that backs up your gut feeling, it just makes sense.”

5. Taking a test-and-learn approach

Building a sustainable cross-border ecommerce strategy has not always been plain sailing for Mo Bro’s.

For example, the brand had a problem with  an international courier service where parcels were frequently disappearing after arriving in Italy. Dattani explains: “Our average transaction is around £20, so people don’t want to spend £10 on a premium courier service. We have to use an economy service, which sometimes takes 10 to 12 days and doesn’t always meet customer expectations.

“It’s about having the knowledge to use the right service, so you can continue to do good business, and good trade, and not miss out on those opportunities.”

The process of expanding internationally has also taught Mo Bro’s to walk before it runs. “We did too many territories too quickly,” Dattani says. “Now we’re cutting down: we’re doing fewer territories, but we’re doing them well and then moving on. Because we’re learning.”

This learning opportunity also extends to the pandemic; the team has used this time to rethink Mo Bro’s’ cross-border ecommerce strategy.

“We’ve seen this crisis as the time to reinvent; to look at new strategies, new routes to market and to implement new processes.

“The extra revenue we’ve generated during lockdown has enabled us to re-invest so we’re going to be branching into more hair and skincare products so we can pivot into men’s grooming as a whole. We’ve been really fortunate and we’ve considered the [crisis] a blessing in disguise.”

Golden Quarter activity isn’t far from Dattani’s mind either and, with the crisis easing, the emphasis is on launching new products ready for peak season.

“Black Friday is the start of our Q4 and this year we want to introduce all of our limited edition beard fragrances that we don’t normally sell on our website – including pancake and maple syrup scents – and we’re hoping to get shower gels and hair shampoos launched for that quarter, too.”

When it comes to the new ecommerce concept, Dattani believes the pandemic has sparked increased engagement for direct-to-consumer businesses and this is an opportunity retailers can leverage.

“Adapting post Covid-19, we think there’s never been a better time to sell online and you’ve also got the shift to customer convenience being the priority. We’ve been very transactional as a business in the past but we want to grow our customer lifetime value and we’re going to launch an online subscription box to build out that relationship with the customer.”

Make use of intelligent SEO in your digital marketing

Whether at home or overseas, search engine optimisation (SEO) plays a crucial role in capturing consumer attention and nurturing leads into sales.

According to international SEO and multilingual content marketing platform Export Worldwide, there are now 3 billion internet users around the globe and 2 billion of them use mobile. The available market is huge, but retailers must invest in international SEO if they are to stand a chance of targeting these consumers. SEO company Moz says retailers should think of it as geotargeting but, instead of optimising a website to attract traffic from a city or town, it involves optimising it for different countries and languages.

To help build an internationalised site with SEO, Moz advises retailers to:

• Specify the target country and/or region with an international-friendly URL structure (country targeting)
• Establish the language that website pages are targeting with the use of language tags (language targeting)
• Create and maintain content in the language(s) of the target market

Other signals to show search engines that your site targets a specific country include hosting your site on a local IP, linking to local content, building links from local resources and finding ways to rank on country-specific search engines, such as Baidu in China and Yandex in Russia.