How do I stand out in e-marketplaces?
As the world’s online market expands, the competition gets tougher. However, there are now more opportunities than ever before to sell your product. What you need is a clear strategy to help you stand out amidst the chaos. Customers want clarity, they want quality, and they want individuality. Despite e-marketplaces sometimes feeling like a battleground for businesses, all of these factors can still be achieved.
Unique vision
You will already have business goals and forecasts before you venture into the world of ecommerce. Your vision in this sense should therefore be clear. However, you need to ensure that what you are offering is different. Anyone can go onto Amazon and find a product of their choice, but are the products necessarily cheaper here? What Amazon offer is an internationally successful logistical system and range of delivery options for customers.
If you are thinking of launching a product on an e-marketplace because customers will like the low price, think again. Being cheap is not enough in the world of online; the product offering is too broad. Instead, you need to offer customers something different – something that they are willing to pay a little more for. This is where the real opportunities are.
What you next need to consider is your own artistic vision for your product and how customers will see your product when it’s online. This refers to image choice and presentation. It’s no secret that humans are enchanted by pretty things. If you want your product to attract as many customers as possible from all over the world, you need to have a range of images available to suit different cultural needs.
Look at China’s Taobao – the way products are presented here is different to how they might be seen on eBay UK. Think about lighting, angles, colours, background – how can you enhance your product to draw in customers, without duping them into what it will be like in real life? Amazon received a patent for photographing products on a white background back in 2014 due to its powerful selling point — customers love clarity! Consider how you can present your own product, and use professional art designers to achieve this vision.
Finer details
Customers want as much information as possible. You need clear and concise product descriptions, measurements, materials, size guides, colour options and codes, not to mention prices, offers and other technical information such as return policies and delivery options. The more details you provide for your customers, the more honest and professional you look. Be proud of your product; prove that it’s as good as you say it is. This is where the quality aspect comes into play. Once they’ve clicked on the enticing images and zoomed in on the various angles, they now want to know what they are actually buying. Take time to provide people with this information.
Language and currency
Images are universal, but the finer details need to be projected in the right language in order to succeed internationally. Make sure you do not just rely on Google Translate to produce your content. Think about local dialects and contemporary language trends that can make your product stand out overseas. Again, do your research into cultural nuances.
Currency is also paramount for getting customers to click ‘buy’. You need to give customers the option to pay in their own currency, and furthermore, you need to consider the fairness of pricing. Research by Paypal shows that customers in the USA, China and Germany like buying from UK websites because of the quality of products – you therefore need to relate this to the cost projection.
For more information on winning international ecommerce strategy, you can now download our latest guide: Is Export Led E-commerce Growth Right for My Business?