Understanding Distribution Channels Key to International Marketing

Best thing about the worldwide web is: it’s the worldwide web…it’s everywhere.

And yet, as e-retailers, many of us are not everywhere our customers are – despite the opportunity the web gives us to be there.

One company that’s trying to be, and taking full advantage of the web, is Zazzle.com. In the below video interview, Michael Karns, Director of Consumer Marketing and International, Zazzle.com, talks through the steps involved when rolling out your ecommerce operation to other countries and why it’s important to understand the distribution channels in those locales.

His first bit of advice goes out to any retailer who is just starting out: approach your online commerce strategy as if you will be an international operation from the very beginning. He outlines the three things you MUST do when rolling out your ecommerce platform internationally. They are:

1. Unicode compliance. Make sure when building your international site that its code is compliant with the various guidelines that span across country borders.

2. Flexible currency shopping cart. If your site’s shopping cart doesn’t accept other currencies you’ll be faced with problems when you try to expand internationally.

3. Company-wide buy-in. Unless the entire organization is bought into your plans to take the ecommerce business international, you won’t get anywhere. So make sure they are, and then start taking your steps toward global growth.