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February, 2018: The World Payment Congress recognizes players in the fintech industry who are converging to create the next level of possibilities in payments. Pictured here: PayTabers all smiles upon clinching the award in Mumbai, India – a PayTabs hub.
Read the full story here
With the advent of internet and eCommerce, selling in your backyard is equated with selling in another country. The medium of sale is the same – your website. But then comes the actual legwork of ensuring your product reaches its customer and the money reaches your bank account. There are a lot of minor but significant factors at play here. Marketing, packaging, currency conversion, shipping, taxes, local duties and more make a small business wonder if they are really capable of taking on the complex world of export trade.
Depending on what you are selling, you’ll need partners in each of these spheres who can support you when you start (when the business may not be much but you’ll need the same degree of professional support) and continue supporting you when your business expands and you need high-tech support points.
If you are thinking of taking your products to international shores, here are a few things to keep in mind before you cross borders
Though you may already have a rough idea of where to start, it is always good to back business decisions with data. Where possible, find out about competitors selling in the market and what their on-ground sales have been like. This allows you to make a fair projection of what your sales can be. Now you’ll be able to prioritise markets where you need to enter first based on the expected sales volume.
A successful initial entry matters a lot. It gives you the confidence to push forward and also helps convincing future clients that you sell quality products that are accepted in multiple countries.
For example, the food import laws in several countries are quite stringent. You’ll not only need FDA clearances but also ensure your packaging has all the relevant information that is mandatory for the particular country. During your application, you may even have to specifically mention countries where the particular item has been refused entry.
Many start-ups may not have the means to set up a local office unless the conditions are proven viable. For initial market entry, it is best to go with a local distribution partner. These channel partners should be experienced personnel who can give you a taste of what your future sales can look like. They can also be your resource who can provide intelligence on how to tweak things and make it work.
Even if your product is sold in a particular international market, there may be specific laws applied to products that are shipped from your country. This may include but not limit to taxes, duties and other general laws on quality and quantity.
Shipping is a biggie. First, you need to get the packaging right which is acceptable to the country you are shipping to. Second, you need someone who has a reputation for timely delivery. Third, you need to work with someone who can initially deliver small quantities and then grow with you to deliver bigger shipments when your market expands. Lastly, shipping costs can eat into your profits, so you’ll need to calculate the shipping partner who provides all of the above at good rates.
After all the groundwork, you’ll need to guide your hard earned money to reach your bank account. For this you’ll first have to ensure that the payment service provider works with multiple countries and currencies, intuitively adds in the most popular wallets in the country, provides easy APIs and makes transfer easy and allows invoicing even if you are on the go. A tall wish list but entirely possible. Sign up for a free demo account here.
There are many things about international sales and export trade that one can learn only from experience. Success isn’t final and failure isn’t fatal if you have an experienced partner to support your journey.
The world today is way more digitalized than ever before, and this has immensely impacted the way stores, showrooms and even small merchants are getting their business done! Everyone has an online presence and every business is trying to rope in as many potential customers possible through web stores or online stores. Naturally, the competition for attracting the target audience is high, and if you too have joined the bandwagon of online merchants recently, here are some cool tricks that can help you stand out!
Web design that attracts and engages
No matter how great the product or service you sell is, without a wonderful web design, your marketing campaign will fall flat on its face. Either you can learn to create a visually appealing web store yourself or you can hire a professional web designer. The investment will be worth it. Or, check out sites such as TonyTemplates or TemplateMonster to get hold of an attractive e-commerce template with the latest designs and layouts. Minimal text and high quality full-width images are the way to go.
Focus on “About Us”
Your “About Us” page is the biggest bait after your landing page to hook potential customers. Keep the design minimal and mention clearly how your brand was born, what you offer, and why it is important. Include testimonials and achievements to gain customer trust and also mention contact details like address, email, and social media pages.
Don’t ignore the power of online support
Your interaction with the customer is not just till the moment he or she makes the payment and gets the product delivered. It should go beyond that in the form of awesome online support or after-sales services that they might need before using the product. Pre-purchase support in the form of live chats on your website can boost the conversion by more than 10% as well. It will also encourage new buyers to trust your store. Make sure that the chat box or the phone line is clearly visible on your homepage.
Choose the perfect payment gateway
Without a secure and fast payment gateway, your online business will do anything but prosper. So, go for a gateway like PayTabs which lets you sell your products globally and receive payments even within 24 hours! It has a very robust 2-layer fraud protection system, and accepts 168 currencies too. You can integrate PayTabs very easily into your system and benefit from features like online invoicing, mobile apps, and convenient payment processing. Customer details and purchase history are well-protected, and PayTabs also generates financial reports that can help you monitor cash flow. This payment gateway is ideal for every type of business, it can make your business cycle easier to handle and it will keep a track on recurring customers too.
Make your website and blog SEO-optimized
Ensure that both your website and blog (everyone has one these days) follow Search Engine Optimization or SEO. This means, that the content, product titles and descriptions must contain keywords that will help you rank higher on organic search results. Or in other words, using the right keywords will increase your visibility to the online audience. Before incorporating the keywords which you think will work, type them into a search engine like Google and see who your business competitors are. If they are big ones, change your keyword to something that is not so competitive. For your blog, use SEO tools and Google Analytics to track page views and see which posts do better.
Other tips
Advertise creatively on social media, track analytics of your site, make your site is mobile-friendly, offer free shipping and assured refunds, use email marketing, and network with industry bloggers, traditional reporters and social media influencers to create a buzz about your product. Don’t forget to keep an eye on your competition too.
In today’s competitive world, “word of mouth” marketing is probably the most coveted of all since it’s the most reliable and definitely the most cost-effective way to grow your business. Referrals are most sought after since someone has actually experienced your offering and is recommending the same to someone else. That makes it the most reliable and hence it also doubles the chances of the lead getting converted into sales.
According to a report by Nielson, people are 4 times more likely to buy a product when it is being referred by someone to a particular business. It is also estimated that customers who are referred are more loyal and can spend more on a long-term basis according to researchers at Wharton and Goethe University.
Now the question is how do you get those referrals for your product or service? Let us look at five ways that can get you good referrals for your business
Your customers are constantly giving you feedback – if you choose to listen. And each feedback, good or bad, is a great opportunity for your brand to shine. Take the example of three year old Lily Robinson who wrote a letter to Sainsbury saying their tiger bread actually looked like ‘giraffe bread’. The customer service head saw this as a fun opportunity and not only responded to Lily’s mail but gave an explanation on why the bread was called so and a $3 gift card. Lily’s mother posted the letter on her blog and within no time, it went viral. They even went on to change their bread’s name citing Lily’s feedback.
All this put the brand in a positive light and build up its goodwill among existing customers. There is a good possibility that many new customers who hadn’t tried the tiger/giraffe bread were now curious to try it out.
According to Brandwatch, 96% of the people that discuss brands online do not follow those brands’ owned profiles. Juxtapose this with another statistic that says “2015 Facebook influenced 52 per cent of consumers’ online and offline purchases”. There is no doubt that most of your consumers exist on various social channels and many of them are talking about you and influencing purchase decisions of new customers. Do some hard listening beyond your profile. Thank each customer who is spreading a positive word. Listen to those who are angry or dissatisfied and be proactive in solving their concerns. If customers know that you are ‘accessible’, they’ll be more open to giving your products a try.
Your loyal customers are the ones that need the best of your thank yous because they’ll love to refer you anytime, anywhere. Take the example of Christina McMenemy who stayed at the Gaylord Opryland hotel three years in a row and fell in love with their alarm clock that played soothing music. She simply loved the fact that the sounds helped her sleep better and searched high and low to find a clock for herself. When she couldn’t, she wrote to the hotel on Twitter asking where she could get one. During the exchange, Gaylord recognized that Christina was a loyal customer and sent her not one but two alarm clocks.
The interesting part is that the brand did not call out these stories. Their customers did all the talking and got all the positive attention for the brand. (source: https://www.helpscout.net/10-customer-service-stories/ )
A referral bonus is the oldest trick in the game. Use it, recommend it, and get more of it. One of the best examples of this comes from Dropbox who offered extra storage space as a reward for referrals who joined them. Needless to say, the trick continues to work like a charm and got Dropbox into the big league for cloud storage and sharing.
According to Texas Tech University, 83% of consumers are willing to refer after a positive experience—yet only 29% actually do! Some referral programs run by themselves because of your great customer service and word of mouth that goes on an auto-pilot. Yet, most referral programs need an extra push and don’t miss out on any opportunity to ask for a referral.
Conclusion: Compared to traditional marketing, referral marketing is neither time-consuming nor expensive. It is one strategy you cannot choose to ignore in your marketing mix.
For any brand that has e-commerce store, a good payment gateway partner is of paramount importance to realize the full potential of the business. A good payment gateway must have a great user interface, should be easy to integrate, non-intimidating, aid in the conversion process and finally, make the post-conversion process easy.
Now, there are quite a few payment gateway providers in the market. Which one you choose largely depends on your exact needs. Some provide to option to offer customized pricing. Others allow a simple a quick deposit of funds. Some allow you to get up and running under an hour. And others allow you to accept payments in multiple currencies. But the one provider that has been doing all of this and more is PayTabs.
Easy to integrate with Shopify, Opencart, Magento and WooCommerce, PayTabs offers everything you need to start running and stay in the business quickly and easily. In fact, it offers many native payment options like Alipay, Skrill, Ukash and giropay to ensure your local customers complete the transaction hassle-free.
One of the best features of PayTabs is its PayPage, which can be used for online invoicing. Even if you don’t have a website or CRM, you can simply send the payment link to your customer to receive payment via credit card or debit card. The system also comes with an invoicing solution which makes you look professional and also allows you to keep track of the payments received.
Track your payments on your phone
With the newly launched PayTabs app for both Android and iOS, it has become a breeze to keep track of payments on the go.
If you are a merchant using PayTabs, you can now access your PayTabs dashboard via the app. The app gives you the ability to request a withdrawal and also create PayPage invoices. To a merchant who is constantly on the go, these features come as a welcome relief from having to carry their laptop everywhere.
Christina
Take Christina, for example, who runs a specialist tour agency for women travellers. She does spend a few days in office but otherwise she is always on the trips she has organized. Her trips are popular because of strong word-of-mouth marketing and bookings for future trips keep happening everyday. This meant that Christina had to check her bookings daily and also spend time making invoices between her trip.
Then, she discovered PayTabs. Using the app, Christina is now able to check new bookings on the app and create invoices in a jiffy. She is able to accept payments without having to direct users to her website and just sending the payment link over an SMS or a messenger.
Andrea
Andrea started her business in eco-friendly jewellery which took off like wild fire. The jewellery raw materials were sourced from the Ecuadorian forests and the artisans locally crafted the jewellery with the help of international designers. As a result, Andrea had many clients from different countries wanting to buy jewellery from her, place repeat orders with ease and pay easily.
Andrea adopted PayTabs, which allowed her clients to pay in their local currency. This lead to a higher adoption rate for her products as they were easier to procure compared to competitors. With PayTabs for iOS, Andrea was able to quickly check for payments, generate invoices on time and request withdrawals easily, helping save time and efforts.
As an entrepreneur, she could maintain her accounts easily no matter where her customers came from.
Built keeping in mind the most important requirements for an online store owner, PayTabs is here to make the payment gateway process simple and effortless. Try it out by downloading the PayTabs app now.
For iOS -You can refer to the link https://goo.gl/FwjVGv to download.
For Android – You can refer to the link https://goo.gl/hjo4ba to download.
