A digital strategy helps improve your business' overseas online sales
What is a Digital Strategy?
Plan your business’s online sales approach to gain overseas market share

eCommerce Digital Strategy

The Five Steps to An International Digital Strategy

Are you ready to sell online?

Creating a cross-border ecommerce digital strategy for your business is an important step in the digital transformation process.

The purpose of the digital strategy is to identify areas of your business operations that require additional resources, in order to successfully sell and compete in the cross-border ecommerce online sales channels.

To begin leveraging your website as a customer acquisition tool, contact your local International Trade Specialist for a free consultation about developing your business’s digital strategy.

Creating a digital strategy for your business to capitalize on the ecommerce sales channels will take some time and consideration. Ensure that you abide all international trade laws while building your product/brand reputation and overseas consumer confidence.

 

 

Here are 5 steps to help you create your business’s digital strategy:

Step 1: Define your digital objectives

Digital Strategy Step 1: Define your digital objectives
  • What do you want your website to achieve? Information or sales? What business capital resources do you have for site repairs and upgrades? ROI may be a while off;
  • Identify and understand the key audiences that would like to visit your site or online marketplace;
  • Create a wireframe drawing of desired site features and desired customer website experience.

 

Step 2: Website internationalization and  SEO

Digital Strategy Step 2: Website internationalization and SEO

 

Step 3: Address your back-end digital infrastructure needs

Digital Strategy Step 3: Address your digital infrastructure needs
  • Understand that the ecommerce sales channel is an investment in your business’ future sales; your overall strategy will dictate what your needs are
  • eCommerce Service Providers are recommended for a more professional, appealing site for overseas consumers

 

Step 4: Choosing an ecommerce sales channel mix (omnichannel)

Digital Strategy Step 4: Choosing an omnichannel sales mix
  • Use your digital strategy to select the ratio of the 4 ecommerce sales options (Your Website, eCommerce Marketplaces, Social Media, and 3rd Party Distributors)
  • Conduct ecommerce market research to determine where products are being bought/imported
  • Understand online purchasing habits in your target market e.g.- “Are marketplaces or website sales preferred by consumers?”

 

Step 5: Establish ecommerce key performance indicators

Digital Strategy Step 5: Establish ecommerce performance indicators using analytics
  • Use your website visitor analytics to establish ecommerce key performance indicators (KPIs) so you can benchmark SEO success
  • Identify areas for improvement, solicit and monitor customer feedback regularly, and utilize data to inform management, sales teams, and marketing decisions

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Global Business Navigator Chatbot Beta

Welcome to the Global Business Navigator, an artificial intelligence (AI) Chatbot from the International Trade Administration (ITA). This tool, currently in beta version testing, is designed to provide general information on the exporting process and the resources available to assist new and experienced U.S. exporters. The Chatbot, developed using Microsoft’s Azure AI services, is trained on ITA’s export-related content and aims to quickly get users the information they need. The Chatbot is intended to make the benefits of exporting more accessible by understanding non-expert language, idiomatic expressions, and foreign languages.

Limitations

As a beta product, the Chatbot is currently being tested and its responses may occasionally produce inaccurate or incomplete information. The Chatbot is trained to decline out of scope or inappropriate requests. The Chatbot’s knowledge is limited to the public information on the Export Solutions web pages of Trade.gov, which covers a wide range of topics on exporting. While it cannot provide responses specific to a company’s product or a specific foreign market, its reference pages will guide you to other relevant government resources and market research. Always double-check the Chatbot’s responses using the provided references or by visiting the Export Solutions web pages on Trade.gov. Do not use its responses as legal or professional advice. Inaccurate advice from the Chatbot would not be a defense to violating any export rules or regulations.

Privacy

The Chatbot does not collect information about users and does not use the contents of users’ chat history to learn new information. All feedback is anonymous. Please do not enter personally identifiable information (PII), sensitive, or proprietary information into the Chatbot. Your conversations will not be connected to other interactions or accounts with ITA. Conversations with the Chatbot may be reviewed to help ITA improve the tool and address harmful, illegal, or otherwise inappropriate questions.

Translation

The Chatbot supports a wide range of languages. Because the Chatbot is trained in English and responses are translated, you should verify the translation. For example, the Chatbot may have difficulty with acronyms, abbreviations, and nuances in a language other than English.

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