The key to increasing sales
Bulgarian consumers may be your loyal audience who highly appreciate your product or services, but soon they may not be enough for you to continue investing in development. When you start selling internationally, not only do you increase your profits, but you also gain greater brand recognition. Sales on foreign markets reduce your risk during shocks on your primary market and also extend the life cycle of the products and services you offer.
Why sell on international markets
We've all heard that when you sell on a foreign market, it brings additional income and increases profits. Of course, just like launching a new product, entering a foreign market also carries risks. Before taking this step, it is important to conduct thorough market research—who are your potential customers; why, when, and how will they buy your product or service; how will you deliver or fulfill orders, and how much would they pay for them.
3 important steps for positioning on a foreign market
- Set clear goals. Be clear about your business objectives and what level of sales you are aiming for. Consider whether you will sell all your products/services or focus only on some of them.
- Conduct preliminary market research. Once you have specified the market, determine its size, what the competition is like, and what your advantages are.
- Choose how to enter the market. You may choose to enter through a distributor, through a partnership with a local business, open a physical office/store, or use an online store. The online sales option is one of the most preferred ones.
Preparation for online sales abroad
Apart from the tips listed above, we have identified two key stages that are at the core of successful sales on a foreign market:
1. Technical readiness
It is important to check and know what hosting server you are currently using. The server from which your online store loads plays an important role in its performance in the respective country. Many online businesses rely on shared hosting due to its low cost, but this can be a huge mistake when starting sales abroad. A recommended solution is a Cloud VPS server from AbsCloud.eu, with which you do not share resources with other sites.
You may have a beautiful site that works well for Bulgarian visitors, but that doesn't mean it will work just as well for visitors from other countries. Most often, the loading time for them is longer and they have to wait more—in many cases, they close the site before it even loads. There may be blocked content that doesn't load, or there may be locations from which your site is not accessible at all.
It is important to check in advance how fast your site loads and how it performs not only during a single visit but also with multiple concurrent visitors. This will give you a clear idea of how your site would behave under increased load or traffic, such as during a strong advertising campaign or successful promotion. A suitable check is the speed analysis from AbsCloud, which shows results under multiple simultaneous requests on the site.
2. Translation
When you sell on foreign markets through an online store, the quality of its translation is essential. Imagine you have a physical store. Attracting customers depends on how well the products are arranged in the window and on the shelves. In your online store, besides product photos, the words describing them are also very important. Words will be best understood if they are in the language of the citizens of the market you are targeting.
Over the past year, at the “Oltrans” Translation Agency, they have observed increasing interest in the "website translation" service. According to them, this is due not only to the fact that they provide their clients with the Oltrans Website Translation Method, but also to the desire of more and more Bulgarian merchants to take a step toward new horizons. These are the group of people who realize that selling only on the Bulgarian market is not enough.
We will give you three main reasons why you should translate your online store into the language of your target audience:
- To reach new foreign-language clients. It isn't enough to translate your online store into English if you want to sell in Romania, because your potential customers in Romania will search for products using Romanian keywords.
- To build trust among your potential foreign-language clients. According to a study conducted by CSA Research in June 2020, 67% of users prefer to buy from a website that is in their native language.
- To increase conversions. Ultimately, this is the goal of every entrepreneur. Having the users' language on your website gives them peace of mind about their service and leads to an increase in the number of inquiries and purchases.
Starting sales on the international market is not an easy step, but it brings many advantages to your business. The satisfaction that your products will be used and recognized internationally is worth the investment. Your new customers are waiting for you, and a translation by Oltrans will help you reach them in their native language.