If you are new to the idea of running your own store for overseas customers, the practical question is where to start. Here is the sequence.
1. Register the domain
Keep it short and easy to remember, prefer a .com, and try to make it distinctive rather than descriptive. A name that has to be spelled out twice on the phone is costing you customers.
2. Choose the hosting
Hosting means the server, and it matters more for export than for domestic work because your visitors are overseas. It has to be fast and stable, and ideally reachable from everywhere your customers are. Cheap hosting in the wrong region is the most common reason a good site performs badly.
3. Design the site
Keep it clean, and do not overfill it with text or with images. Restrain the palette as well: too many colours, or colours that are too bright, read as untrustworthy to a buyer who has never heard of you.
4. Handle the languages
The customers are overseas, so the site needs more than one language. English first, then the markets you actually sell into: German, French, Korean, and so on. Machine translation is visible to a native reader and undermines the credibility the design was built to create.
5. Track behaviour
The site should collect data: where the traffic comes from, how long people stay, which pages they look at. That information is what tells you where the site is losing people, and it is the input for every later marketing decision.
6. Take payments
PayPal is the practical default for a new export store: secure, straightforward, and it does not require the buyer to hand financial details to a seller they do not know. That last point matters more than the fee.
7. Promote it
The most important step. Nobody knows the site exists, so the content has to be updated regularly to bring people in and to build recognition.
Three ways to bring traffic
Interest and behaviour data can be used to target the people most likely to want the product, and to put it in front of them where they already spend time.
Google AdWords
Paid search produces results quickly. Use creative, specific wording and pair it with relevant product images, because the ad that reads as specific wins the position and the click.
Email works, to the extent that you have a list. Keep the subject line short, the subject clear and the content focused, and do not send so often that people stop opening.
If you would rather have the store built for you, we do that work. Get in touch and we can start from your market rather than from a template.
XZS Tech is a Shenzhen-based development company. We build custom mini programs, WeChat and mobile apps, e-commerce systems and corporate websites, covering requirement analysis, design, development and after-sales support, and we hand over the source code at delivery.
If you are planning something along the lines of what this article describes, tell us the scenario and we will come back with an approach and a cost range. Call 0755-82494862, or reach us through the contact page at hk.xiaozhushoukeji.cn/en/contact-en/. The first conversation costs nothing.
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