How to present your offer abroad
Not only big companies are thinking about selling online abroad, small and medium sized companies can expand their business too. In fact, there is no other possible way as promising as online!
Especially the European countries are the first destination for Greek companies to offer their products. This is true for selling to customers, called B2C (Business to Consumer) as well as selling to companies, called B2B (Business to Business).
The first post in this series was about payment and shipping, two technical aspects of eCommerce that have to be solved. In this post the subject is how to present your items abroad.
Everything that you put online, your photos, you product descriptions, your texts, everything, is called “content”. Content is extremely important in the online world. There is one very famous sentence in eCommerce that is true globally: “Content is King”.
In this post, we talk about product related content. We concentrate on B2C in this post, B2B is slightly different.
The good news is that most of the necessary elements that you will need are universal for almost all European countries. But, again, be aware that the Greek market is not representative for the rest of Europe! The customers have a vast selection of offers and are used to get all the necessary data to buy, rent or contact you. Your competitors put a lot of work into the presentation of their products & services and study very closely what the customers look for.
Let’s start with the obvious, the photos of your products: They have to be very clear and show as much detail as possible. They must be as good as possible! Remember, online customers cannot touch, feel, smell your items, the photos is all you have to convince them. And Online customers are very suspicious!
Show minimum 3-6 photos per item. Show the relevant details, not only the front view. Best would be: 2 photos front with different settings (1x with neutral background, 1x decorated or in “natural” surrounding). Then left side, right side, back. Is there a very relevant detail of your product? 1x photo with a closeup of it.
The right naming of the photos is very important for SEO and to keep track of what photo is for what item. If you have 100 items, you already will have to sort 600 photos! You must not forget to resize them for online (75 dpi). If you don´t, your page will be so “full” (programmers call it “heavy”), that your website will become very slow to load, and customers have NO patience!! (And Google hates it too = bad SEO)
Now the text and additional information: Be very clear and always separate text from information. The text should be well written, easy to read, short sentences and not too long. Mention the name of the product or service at the beginning of the text again and explain what the product will do for the customer. Not only what it does, but how it will make the customers life easier, make him feel good, solve his problem. Remember, the customer is not looking for a product, he is looking for a solution! Speak HIS language, and we don´t mean Greek or English here. Is he young or old? Is he male or female? Rich or poor? Use the words your potential customers use themselves!
Separated from the text come the necessary product/service specifications. Always in the same order, please! For example, first always the height, then the width, then the weight, and so on. The best is to make a form, so that everybody enters the products into the website in the same way (format). It is of greatest importance, if you want to actually sell/rent something online, that ALL relevant information is listed here. If a potential customer does not find what is important for him, he will buy it elsewhere, that easy! And don´t forget to put the price well visible, customers hate to have to search for the price.
A very important information that is often overlooked is: Is your product available (on stock) or has to be manufactured/built? If your product is available immediately, say so!
Additional, very helpful content is any information regarding your warranty and how you handle customer returns. You will know that in Europe it is mandatory that you take your online sold products back within 14 days. So why not say it here? (With some exceptions, like food or specially built products)
Conclusions:
Content is King! Good photos, good text and ALL relevant details of your item or service are mandatory. Help the customer to find what he is looking for. Separate the text from the technical information. Tell the customer that your product is on stock, customers love fast delivery! Don´t do the photos and the text “cheaply”, if you do it, then everything will be in vain.
The next post in the “sell abroad online” series will be about the often overlooked, but very important “trust elements” on a website to convert a visitor to your site into a customer.
If you have missed the Part 1 of this article see it here
