Looking to grow your global ecommerce presence? Going global may be a daunting task for brands—it’s difficult to align and build out marketplace teams, understand the nuances of different regions, gather the right resources, and establish a logistics process that works for your brand. For these reasons and many others, brands are either hesitant to fully embrace a global strategy or try to move forward without the right support, wasting significant resources and likely pulling out of regions later.
So, what are brands to do? Our first recommendation is to find a global ecommerce expert like Pattern to partner with. With the right teams, resources, and knowledge, an effective marketplace partner can guide you through the process in a way that will yield long-term success.
Whether you’re working with an ecommerce accelerator like Pattern or taking a different approach to expansion, one of the best ways to start the process is to test your products’ performance in stages through Amazon’s global market. Here’s how we recommend proceeding:
1. Turn on FBA Export
FBA export is an easy way to test international interest in your products. There’s no extra cost to enroll, no product registration required, no localized pricing, and Amazon helps you throughout the process. They’ll work with you to determine which products are a good fit, then handle fulfillment, import duty, customs clearance, and logistics when customers purchase from you.
It’s good to keep in mind that there are a couple of drawbacks to the FBA export strategy—products aren’t listed on local Amazon storefronts (like Amazon.co.uk), and are ineligible for Prime shipping.
Most brands are pre-enrolled in FBA export, but you can manage your participation at any time, as well as disable certain countries to narrow your testing focus. Overall, it’s an easy, low-risk option to test international demand, and could pair well with strategy tests like country-specific social campaigns before you decide to move forward with a full-fledged regional brand launch.
2. Sell on the Amazon Global Store
If you’d like to take your international presence to the next level, selling your products through Amazon’s Global Store is a great option. This is different from using FBA export because orders are fulfilled by your U.S.-based merchant, you’ll have the support of dedicated inventory, and your products get localized listings on Amazon’s international sites.
Selling on the Amazon Global Store allows your brand to gain access to local customers without having to register your products. You get the advantage of in-region advertising and SEO optimization, with local customer support, too. By selling on the Amazon Global Store, you can get a better sense of demand for your products and ramp up your strategy without spending the money to fully establish a local presence.
If you’re looking to extend your Amazon reach, this could be a solution for your brand. The drawbacks are—since your products are being shipped from the U.S., your fulfillment process will take longer and your customers will need to pay for higher shipping costs.
3. Establish a Local Presence
If selling on Amazon’s Global Store is going well and you’re confident in your products’ performance in your target regions, you’re ready to set up a true Amazon local presence. This levels up your strategy up from step 2 with in-region Amazon fulfillment and fast shipping, allowing you to be more competitive with other players on Amazon’s international storefronts.
At this stage, you’re fully invested in your regional consumers and ready to optimize your product performance for traffic, conversions, and price to fully ramp up your revenue potential. You’ll want to consider that you’ll need to go through product registration with a full Amazon local presence, and you’ll be responsible for all of the taxes, duties, and tariffs that apply to your products.
Take Your Amazon Strategy Global with Pattern
For U.S.-based brands with great performance on Amazon, testing product viability in global markets is a great way to grow and increase revenue. At Pattern, we’ve helped many brands expand internationally, and we know from experience that the best way to approach global expansion is to have the right resources, strategy, and support in place before you do so. As a Pattern partner, we’ll help you analyze your regional competitive landscape, set up a strategic and integrated fulfillment plan, and guide your brand through the process from start to finish.
Ready for global ecommerce success? Contact us here.
