Guest post: International e-commerce sales - expand in a controlled and easy way

Written by: Vilkas.fi, Linnea Orimus, Marketing Manager (Vilkas Group)

Many e-commerce merchants start their sales first in the domestic market. Later, after their online business has grown and strengthened, merchants begin to consider moving into international markets. This approach is completely fine, but nothing prevents you from starting with international sales right away. With the user-friendly Vilkas Now e-commerce platform, you can easily sell your products outside Finland by utilizing different language versions and offering customized payment and delivery options. These e-commerce features enable controlled expansion and testing of new markets beyond domestic borders. You can expand operations in a limited way, without the need for additional investments in e-commerce technology.

How do you benefit from international sales? Delivering e-commerce orders internationally might feel a bit scary at first. However, broader markets offer several benefits even for smaller merchants:

Better sales opportunities: When selling products online internationally, you can reach new markets, significantly increasing the number of potential customers, which increases sales opportunities. This is especially important if you feel that your products have limited growth potential in Finland.

Diversification of revenue streams: By selling products online regardless of country, you can diversify your revenue streams and reduce dependence on a single country or market. This can help reduce the risk of economic recessions or other disruptions in one area.

Reach market niches not found in Finland: In international markets, your products might have completely different demand than in Finland. You can reach exactly the market niches and customer segments suitable for your products.

Lower costs: When selling regardless of location, you save on traditional brick-and-mortar store costs, such as space rentals and personnel expenses.

Vilkas Now enables international sales easily and effortlessly

You can define from your online store's backend to which countries and regions you sell your products. At the same time, you can reach entirely new markets and increase your sales opportunities. Managing restricted sales regions in the Vilkas Now e-commerce platform is very effortless, and you don't need to build multiple different online stores for regions. The platform automatically translates the store to your desired language, and you only need to translate the text content you add yourself, such as product descriptions.

Additionally, you serve your customers better when you offer them exactly the payment and delivery methods they desire. Service providers well-known in Finland, such as Matkahuolto and Paytrail, are not as well-known elsewhere in Europe. Nordic customers often prefer PostNord, while outside the Nordic countries, DHL, GLS, and UPS are clearly more well-known. Customers perceive the online store as reliable when familiar and trusted logistics and payment partners are available. Thus, you provide a better shopping experience for your customers while optimizing logistics and delivery processes. This can help reduce delivery costs, speed up delivery times, and ensure that the right products are delivered to the right customers.

For example, Vilkas's partner Shipit offers all these delivery services your customer needs for both domestic and international trade from one service, with one easy integration without fixed monthly fees.

Are you also aware of different countries' e-commerce regulatory requirements, such as data protection and consumer protection legislation? The European Union (EU) mostly has uniform regulations, but the situation may be different outside the EU. By limiting your operations to certain countries or restricted areas, you can start with more easily manageable internal markets and ensure compliance with relevant regulations.

Why should domestic companies internationalize?

Finnish companies and products are known to be desirable in international markets. Domestic products are known for high quality and reliability. Finland has a strong reputation in technology, design, and sustainable development fields. When selling domestic products internationally, you utilize already achieved positive reputation and attract customers who value innovation and sustainability. You're not dependent on the domestic market economy but expand your revenue streams, which are not affected by domestic economic fluctuations or market changes.

Summary

E-commerce is one of the most cost-effective forms to test new markets and conduct practical market research on both product demand and marketing strategy. It's relatively effortless to make changes to online sales and digital marketing strategy based on practical experience compared to expensive space and personnel investments in a foreign environment.

Many merchants have experimented with new sales regions specifically through e-commerce, investigating differences in international customers' buying behavior, customs and wishes, and the best-functioning business processes in the area. Only after this, as a result of experimentation and improvement, have merchants invested in brick-and-mortar stores in new areas.

Vilkas Now L - e-commerce service suitable for demanding needs

With Now L e-commerce, you can enhance sales especially for more valuable products by offering product-specific delivery methods, which can increase customers' shopping cart value. Additionally, you can customize delivery and payment methods and pricing for different regions, and increase your store's attractiveness in customers' eyes especially in areas where they are accustomed to certain providers, such as in the Nordic countries. Now L enables expanding your business to international markets with numerous language versions.

More and more people want to implement their e-commerce themselves. The most satisfied self-built e-commerce merchants did it with Vilkas Now*. Join the group of satisfied merchants - and shift to the next gear in your online business.