How to ensure you’re prepared for Cross Border expansion

One of the key things you need to consider and do before you expand your eCommerce business to new countries like the UK and EU is research the existing market for your products. Now, there’s a huge amount of software out there that’s available to help you do this and as an eCommerce seller, I’m sure many of you will probably already have or be aware of some of that software.

Those of you who don’t already have any might not want to buy some software and if that is you then contact us, and we’ll see if we can help. We have a team of expert Account Managers who are proficient in maintaining and optimising eCommerce stores across a whole host of platforms. They can use their knowledge and proficiency of their native markets as well as the above-mentioned tools that we have access to and put together a report for you. This report that we like to call a Feasibility Study will determine the, you guessed it, the feasibility of your brand and more importantly, your brand’s products being successful in these markets. There’s a small charge for that, but at the saving of buying those tools and the time needed to perform that yourself, it’s worth it.

So, you’ve probably got products in the US and looking to expand them into the UK in the EU. Well, these markets are about the same size as that market so there’s a huge opportunity for you, the downside with these markets is that there are five languages so that’s the key thing.

Now, the question and research you’re now looking to do is, who is already selling your products. Here’s the key things we look for – how many people are selling it? If there’s absolutely hundreds of people selling it, you probably don’t want to sell it. It’s not because you can’t sell it, and it’s not because you might not be the best seller, there’s so much competition that it makes it really difficult to do. So, you’re looking for a small number of sellers.

Well, you’re then looking for is the next thing. How much it sells for? It’s absolutely crucial to see how much your product is being sold for in the market. Now, if you are doing amazingly well in the US, the chances are, it’s already being sold. There is a chance that your product is not being sold in the EU marketplaces, which if its not, there’s an opportunity straight away. If it’s not, I would say, let’s crack on, let’s expand today, do not hang around.

If other people are selling that, these are things you just need to think about.

• How many other sellers are doing it?
• How much it sells for?
• And what’s the volume?

And what you’re looking for is not the volume of sales in the UK, you’re looking at the whole of the EU. So, the UK and the EU, absolutely crucial, you go through these steps, these are the basic things you need to know to see if your product is feasible.  You’re looking to make sure that you can sell the product, earn profit.

Now, when you’re looking to sell your product, you must make sure that you’re including, you’ve got 20% VAT in the cost price of that good. So, if you want to sell something for 10 pounds, you need to sell it for 12 pounds to take into consideration the VAT, absolutely crucial. If you’re looking at selling it for 10 pounds, well, you got VAT in there, so you need to take 20% off of that for the VAT.

I hope that helps; little give you a bit of research information on what you need to look for here in the UK and EU.