Taking your own webshop abroad, what should you pay attention to?
Do you want to sell the products from your webshop to other European countries? Expanding your webshop abroad involves a lot. Think of the various payment methods, delivery, quality marks and much more. In this blog we cover a few essential topics you need to pay attention to if you want to start a webshop abroad. Do you want immediate help expanding your webshop, or want to start your own webshop? Then feel free to get in touch.
Make sure your webshop is ready for abroad
Simply putting your Dutch webshop online abroad without any changes obviously doesn’t work. A number of points then come to the fore that you need to pay attention to. Think, for example, of putting your webshop on a national domain extension (.nl, .be, etc.). This often means you’ll need to build a new webshop. Other points to pay attention to:
- Texts of your website/webshop in a new language.
- The option for customers to pay with a different currency, if needed.
- Offering the option to choose local payment and shipping methods.
Decide which countries you want to be active in
In December 2019, the Netherlands once again topped the annual e-commerce list from the United Nations. The top 10 countries consists of no fewer than 8(!) European countries, with the top three made up of Switzerland and Singapore. They’re followed by Finland, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Germany and Australia. Read more about the annual e-commerce list via this link.
Determine the payment options
In the Netherlands, iDeal is very popular. Research has shown that as many as 95% of Dutch people prefer to pay with iDeal. For other countries you’ll first need to find out which payment methods are most used there. This is because iDeal isn’t available everywhere in other parts of Europe.
Choose your delivery service per country
The Netherlands offers a lot of choice when it comes to types of delivery companies. In recent years, many parcel carriers have been added, both large and small. In the Netherlands, the well-known carriers are, for example, PostNL, DHL, DPD and UPS. The question is, of course, which delivery services are popular abroad. It’s important to give this proper attention, so that you can offer the right and most reliable delivery service for your webshop per country. This is, of course, also important to be able to deliver your parcel as quickly as possible.
Make your webshop mobile- and desktop-friendly
Nowadays, many Dutch people make their purchases via mobile phone or tablet. In 2019, as many as 58% of Dutch people made purchases via a mobile phone. So also keep in mind that your webshop is user-friendly for both desktop and mobile.
Use quality marks
To win your customer’s trust, quality marks can play a very important role. In some countries, such as Germany, using a quality mark has become standard procedure. A well-known quality mark in Germany, for example, is Trusted Shops. When it comes to online shopping, most Europeans like to buy from webshops from their own country. With a quality mark, you can win their trust and persuade them to make a purchase at your webshop.