Wherever you find digital shopping, you will also find different regional requirements for succeeding in those markets. To accommodate those local customs across the global market, your customer experience needs to be flexible. Flexibility in this area does not mean your customer experience needs to touch its nose to its toes. A flexible global customer experience means that your business technology gives the best customer experience to anyone who visits your site, no matter where they come from.

Localization is one technique you should use for creating the good customer experiences. It is important for maximizing recurring revenue, because it provides more acquisitions up front and more renewals later on, thus reducing your churn rates and increasing your customer lifetime value.

To help you take your business to this next level of safe and secure customer experiences optimized for global customers, we put together this analysis of the seven most important aspects for creating the best customer experience to grow your global subscriber base:

• Languages
• Currencies
• Prices
• Payment methods
• Page elements
• Taxes
• Risk management

Localize Languages

Avoid making assumptions about which language to display to your customers based solely on their geolocation. Instead, rely on the preferences customers select in the browser. Then use those preferences to deliver the right customer experience for sign-up pages, marketing emails, customer account sections and in-app messages.

Localize Currencies

If you want to raise conversion rates and maximize renewal rates, you must let subscribers pay in their local currency. Depending on your base currency, a fluctuating exchange rate may be a problem for CLV, or it may be an opportunity for unexpected cash. Research your competition and test different pricing methods to see which prices work best for specific regional markets.

Localize Prices

You can price your service in a local currency but still not offer a competitive price. When you set prices in local currencies, don’t use a floating exchange rate to convert the prices of your product, and make sure the prices display in clean, round numbers. You also have to consider the purchasing power of the average customer in your target market.

Localize Payment Methods

Localizing payment methods makes the user experience of paying for subscriptions as simple as possible for the customer. Many subscribers in different regions of the world prefer to use payment methods other than credit card. You must offer those payment methods to reduce friction in the customer experience and increase recurring revenue rates.

Localize Page Elements

Page elements are easy to overlook, but they are essential to providing exceptional customer experiences to your global subscribers. The way you display dates, prices, and form fields must all comply with local conventions, which vary widely.

Localize Taxes

If you are the merchant of record for your online transactions, you need a system in place to correctly calculate, collect and remit taxes to the proper tax authorities. Displaying taxes the right way raises conversion rates and maximizes renewals. And complying with regional tax law mitigates the risk to your business. But the number of taxing jurisdictions across the world makes achieving compliance with all global tax requirements on your own a difficult challenge.

Localize Risk Management

More and more, companies are starting to realize just how important it is to both comply with regional privacy standards and secure crucial business data from hackers and breaches. The more you know about your obligations in the areas of data privacy and information security, the safer your customers will feel and the safer your business will be.

Keystone

Localization is crucial for creating better customer experiences and earning more recurring revenue. When you implement great customer experiences, you make it easier for people around the world to subscribe to your service, and that means more recurring revenue for you.

Download the full ebook to learn all about localizing your subscription business for international markets.

The post Seven Tips for Growing Your Global Subscriber Base appeared first on cleverbridge.

As a digital merchant, you know your product is valuable to customers around the world. But you can’t just set up shop in a new market and expect overnight success.

To increase your global revenue, you must have an in-depth understanding of exactly how customer preferences vary from place to place. Then use that understanding to design unique shopping experiences for your customers across the globe.

Now, localization entails more than just translation. A true localized shopping experience depends on things like:

• Speaking your customer’s language
• Letting them pay how they want
• Setting the right price
• Designing for usability
• Displaying tax for optimal conversions

Let’s dive into each one, shall we?

Speaking your customer’s language

Truly localize your content by using words that make sense to your readers and puts them at ease when making a purchase. For example, in your U.S. store, the word for where a shopper’s products are kept is called the cart. The preferred nomenclature in Great Britain, however, is bag.

From a tactical perspective, avoid making assumptions about which language to display to your customers based solely on their geolocation. Instead, rely on the preferences customers select in the browser. Use those preferences to deliver the right customer experience for sign-up pages, marketing emails, customer account sections and in-app messages.

Letting your customers pay how they want

Letting your customers pay how they want involves two elements: currency and payment method.

Localizing currencies

If someone in the U.S. were to walk into a brick-and-mortar store and see items marked for sale in euros or Japanese yen, there is a good chance they would walk right out of the store without buying a thing—it’s too confusing and not worth the hassle.

The situation is the same when shopping online. Consumers do not want to see product prices displayed in an unfamiliar currency. Show pricing in currencies that are relevant for the customers in that country.

Localizing payment methods

Know which payment methods are the most popular and make sure you offer them. Always keep an eye on the latest trends in the markets you serve, and add payment methods accordingly.

Do your research, because what is typical to you as a consumer in your home country may be a barrier to conversion for someone buying online on the other side of the world.

For example, most Americans use credit cards for ecommerce purchases. However, the situation is very different across European countries. In Germany, customers tend to use PayPal, wire transfers and direct debit payments more than they use credit cards. In the Netherlands, the vast majority of shoppers avoid using credit cards and prefer to use the local iDEAL system. Your carts must support your shoppers’ payment preferences in order to convert them effectively.

Setting the right price

Dig deep into fluctuating exchange rates and local purchasing power to determine how to price your products.

Just because U.S. customers will purchase your product for $50 does not mean that someone from India or China will too. A $50 product (converted to local currencies, of course) is probably unreasonable in these areas considering that the average income per person is well below what it is in the U.S.

If you are a merchant located in a market with a strong currency you might have to drop your prices in other markets just to stay competitive. It may result in lower revenue than you would like, but it goes a long way in improving conversion rates and decreasing piracy for your products in countries that cannot afford to pay your typical asking price.

Conversely, if you are a merchant located in a country with a weak currency, you might consider raising your prices for markets that can bear to pay a little more. If you don’t do this, you may be perceived as offering a lower quality product that consumers won’t trust.

The key is to determine the purchasing power equivalence of your global visitors to help you understand the relative value of a currency. Don’t forget to research how your competitors price their products in your target markets.

Designing for usability

Know what successful design looks like in the countries you are trying to reach.

For example, in English language homepages, you’ll often notice a heavy emphasis on the search field, few featured images and a minimal amount of text.

In other regions like Japan, one sees many more links, a lot of text and less emphasis on the search options.

To ensure that you’re assuring customers with proper presentation, research the most popular websites in the countries you are interested in, and have native industry experts help design your site if possible.

Displaying Tax for Optimal Conversions

Although ecommerce removes many barriers to global selling, there are challenges that occur no matter how you sell your product. One of the most important issues is calculating, collecting and remitting sales and/or consumption taxes when required by the laws of the countries you are selling in. Compliance is achieved by consulting your own legal advisors, so don’t take this as legal advice.

However, we do know a thing about optimizing conversion rates by localizing the way you display the tax on the sale.

In the U.S., sales tax is added to the advertised price. Customers who go to a brick-and-mortar store and see a price of $79 know they will ultimately pay more than that. In Chicago, Illinois, the sales tax is 10.25 percent, which means that the tax on a $79 product is $8.20 So, on a website, the product would be advertised for a price of $79. However, once the customer enters the shopping cart, the tax is displayed and added to the price, resulting in $88.19. This is how U.S. customers are used to seeing prices, so this is how they expect it will be displayed in the cart.

In the European Union, however, Value Added Tax (VAT) is a tax on the perceived value of a product and is marketed as a component of the final price. European customers who see an advertised price of €79 expect to pay exactly €79 at checkout. Usually, an additional note on the marketed price indicates how much of that price is actually the VAT.

As you can see, it is important to be aware of not only what the tax rate is for a country when selling globally, but also how to present it to customers. Make sure your store supports these important details and are easy to implement. They make a huge difference in conversion rates.

Keystone

Once you’ve successfully localized your ecommerce, you’ve got to stay on top of it. You should continue to monitor your regional traffic and conversion rates, test different layouts for conversion rate optimization, and always research new payment methods. Localization never ends.

For a deeper dive into localization, check out our 7 Tips for Growing Your Global Subscriber Base.

The post Localization 101 — Five Elements to Optimize Conversion Rates appeared first on cleverbridge.

Your goal is to create comfort and convenience at every stage of the buying process. When you localize the shopping experience for your customers, they will feel comfortable buying your products because the experience is familiar to them. If the buying process feels awkward and unnatural, your customers will bow out and find a more comfortable place to purchase.

To successfully localize, you must understand your customers’ preferences and how they vary from place to place. It’s so much more than just translating product descriptions. There are many very important elements to consider.

In this blog post, we will discuss the first five steps of expanding your international reach with true localization. HINT: It involves lots of research.

Step 1. Know where your customers are coming from

As an online merchant, it is vital for you to capture information on your traffic sources. If you’re not currently analyzing the regional sources of your traffic this is your first step in your research.

You simply can’t rely on ambiguous, general research. You need precise data about your customer base and your products, not a broad ecommerce data dump. Look at your analytics and determine exactly which countries and regions your traffic is coming from.

Step 2. Identify which languages your customers use

Looking at traffic sources by territory presents only part of the big picture. For example, just because a visitor comes from the U.S. doesn’t necessarily mean that an English-language shopping cart is best for them.

Just like at a brick-and-mortar store, customers prefer to shop in their native language. Make sure to analyze which languages your customers are using in their browsers, and cross-reference the regional data.

Step 3. Find out who is not converting

Once you discover where your traffic is coming from and what browser language that traffic uses, you should figure out which demographic is abandoning your site without completing their orders. This will give you a good idea of which markets would make the most sense to enter.

By identifying your target markets, you won’t have to spend time trying to localize your store to suit hundreds of regions and countries. You can feel confident focusing on the customers in your target audience because your research backs it up.

Step 4. Determine which markets make the most sense to enter

Once you have an understanding of where your traffic is coming from, your ability to optimize your product offering for global visitors is greatly enhanced. This analysis will help you determine if you should market to the entire world or just a few other countries.

By using data to pinpoint your target audience, you can be precise and meaningful about which areas to spend time and resources on. Now you are ready to get to know those new customers.

Step 5. Start your research on the five major elements of checkout process localization

Do as much research as you can on these important localization factors within the markets your research has identified.

• Languages – Go beyond auto-translated words into truly localized content.
• Payment Methods and Currency– Know which payment methods are the most popular and why. Find out how they work.
• Pricing Strategy – Dig deep into the cultural norms and find success stories.
• Design – Understand what successful design looks like in your key markets.
• Tax Regulations – Learn as much as possible about the specific rules and regulations.

That should keep you busy for a while. But if you’re looking to minimize your efforts and start growing your global business today, reach out and send us a message. We’ll be happy to discuss your plans for broadening your market.

Keystone

Effective localization is imperative to global ecommerce success. But it takes time and resources to expand your international reach. So make sure you have a solid strategy that includes research as the first step.

For a deeper dive into localization, check out our 7 Tips for Growing Your Global Subscriber Base.

The post Localization 101 – The First Five Steps appeared first on cleverbridge.

If your focus is on offering the best customer experience, whether in terms of your product or billing, 2017 is going to force you to focus on some crucial questions.

• What is the true cost of managing customer billing and payments in-house?
• How can you effectively acquire and retain cross-border shoppers? Are there any risks?
• How do subscription businesses increase customer lifetime value?
• How does an API-based ecosystem improve my business?

The following compilation of subscription billing ebooks will help you answer all those questions and others.

What Are the Hidden Costs of Your In-House Subscription Billing Solution?

It may seem like building a subscription billing solution is something you can handle on your own. But maintaining a homegrown solution carries with it significant hidden costs. As your business grows, can you scale with your increased volume? Will simply maintaining your infrastructure take resources away from improving your core offering?

Don’t let the hidden costs of an in-house solution bleed your business dry. Check out our microsite to learn more.

7 Tips for Growing Your Global Subscriber Base

Selling subscriptions in international markets is more complicated than simply translating your marketing website and order process into new languages. To grow your global subscriber base, customers need to be approached in a way that makes sense in their local context. In fact, there are seven key areas every subscription business must address when they start selling in new regions.

Download this ebook to learn all about localizing your subscription business for international markets.

Aligning Your Subscription Business With APIs

Manually keeping your product catalog, marketing strategy, subscription reporting and customer self-service options aligned across multiple systems costs resources and ultimately erodes your bottom line. But there is a better way. A subscription business using APIs is aligned to maximize customer satisfaction and recurring revenue.

Download the ebook to learn more about reducing time and effort managing billing and payments.

Increasing the Lifetime Value of  Subscribers

Getting a customer to subscribe doesn’t guarantee that they’ll stick around forever. If you want to retain their business for as long as possible, make sure that you’re offering ongoing value to your subscribers. This guide dives into optimizing for long-term subscriber relationships and profitability.

Inside the ebook you will find for more tactics for increasing the lifetime value of subscribers, such as:

• Reducing subscriber churn
• Deepening subscriber usage
• Increasing upgrades and add-ons

3 Compliance Risks for Global Subscriptions

You want to boldly venture into new markets, but wily dragons in the form of ever-changing global compliance regulations lurk at every turn. Violating these regulations can damage your business’s reputation and your bottom line.

This ebook covers everything you need to know about increasing global revenue while effectively managing your risk. That starts by:

• Offering shopping experiences that comply with local legislation
• Obtaining customer consent for email and other marketing efforts
• Ensuring data privacy and information security by complying with a variety of industry standards (PCI DSS, ISO27k and GDPR)
• Collecting and remitting taxes

Do Subscriptions Make Sense for Your Business?

How can you be sure that a subscription model is what’s best for your business – and for your customers?

This ebook covers everything you need to consider, like:

• Which type of subscription model best fits my business?
• What are the pros and cons of subscription billing?
• What do all successful subscription businesses have in common?
• Will a subscription model ultimately benefit my customers?

Subscription Metrics and Reporting Tips

Financial and revenue metrics are the responsibility of your Finance team (they love that stuff). But in today’s subscription environment, the role of your Finance team is changing. They’re no longer just the cost accountant, measuring overall business health; now they’re actively driving growth across all functions within your organization.

In this ebook, you’ll learn tips and tricks for developing a subscription metrics and reporting strategy that enables your Finance team to:

• Measure value with subscription metrics
• Assign useful subscriber identities
• Analyze and report by cohort and subscriber role
• Determine the most meaningful insights for your business

Keystone

For us, the focus is on the customer experience. Something that seems as simple as a monthly or annual renewal means that the design and function of your site, marketing emails, sign-up process, payment and billing, renewal and cancellation events are all acting in concert. By solving these challenges, you can expect greater recurring revenue and less churn.

The post 2016 Roundup: Subscription Billing Ebooks appeared first on cleverbridge.

So that’s what we did. We found that all of the everyday tasks and expenses involved with managing a solution in-house can prevent growth into new markets and can stunt ongoing optimization efforts.

Let’s Break It Down

Evaluating the costs associated with managing an in-house subscription billing solution is a major task, and involves looking at every aspect of your business. In this post, we look at three key areas: localization and front-end design, tax collection and remittance, and global data and legal compliance. These are only some of the areas a subscription business will need to manage, either on their own or with partners. But even without accounting for back-end development, accounting, IT administration and security, subscription management, fraud prevention and customer support, the costs of developing a home-grown solution quickly begin to spiral out of control.

Localization and Front-End Design

Important Considerations

Localization

Optimizing your subscription pages and purchase process for new and existing regions involves significant localization resources. This includes translating text, accommodating double-byte characters, and displaying relevant form fields in the right sequence. Displaying localized pricing, payment methods and currencies will inspire customer confidence and increase conversions.

Continuous Testing and Quality Assessment (QA)

Testing the design and layout of your online sales process is key to optimizing conversions. You also need to keep up with evolving design trends, customer demands, frameworks and features and test these regularly. QA is an integral part of launching redesigned or reconfigured subscription pages or purchase processes. If you’re testing internally, you’ll need a good six to nine months of user data before you can draw any real conclusions.

Responsive Design

Customers expect a seamless experience regardless of whether they’re using their PC, tablet or phone, so you need to invest in resources for delivering responsive design across devices.

Key Takeaway

The time and resources needed to effectively manage a presence in multiple regions on your own are significant. A subscription billing provider can rapidly deliver a customized, responsive customer experience — including design (fonts, colors, etc.), build-out and quality assessment. The QA period will be considerably shorter because your provider has market research (derived from working with multiple clients) on which configurations will attract and retain subscribers in each region.

Learn more about localizing for a global subscriber base with our illustrated ebook 7 Tips for Growing Your Global Subscriber Base

Tax Collection and Remittance

Important Considerations

Value-Added Tax (VAT)

The EU first started charging VAT on digital transactions that occur within the EU in 2003. Since then, VAT structure and standards have been continually evolving, and companies often have a hard time staying compliant. For example, prior to 2015, VAT assessment was based on where your business was located; now VAT rate is contingent on destination (that is, where your customer is located). If you have customers in the EU, it’s critical that you understand and comply with VAT regulations by collecting and remitting tax to the proper authorities. By not complying, intentionally or otherwise, you risk major fines. Your global revenue will take a hit, too, since prices without VAT factored in are not properly optimized for profit.

Tax Laws Based on Subscription Type

There are different tax implications depending on the type of subscription being sold (physical, digital, on premise software, etc.). Logic for calculating this kind of tax needs to be built into your subscription billing platform.

Regional Tax Laws

Tax laws vary from region to region and are subject to change. For instance, a new set of regulations in South Korea states that electronic services sold to South Korean customers are subject to a VAT of 10 percent. Laws like this go into effect immediately, and it’s mandatory that your business complies.

Sales Tax

In the United States, tax must be collected on all taxable sales, and tax rates vary from state-to-state. Collecting sales tax can be an enormous chore for online businesses because any customer in any state can conceivably purchase anything online. Sure, you can apply for individual seller’s permits in each state, calculate state tax on a per-customer basis and keep track of tax you collect — but that will take up significant internal resources.

Key Takeaway

Staying up-to-date on changes to global sales tax and VAT regulations is a task in and of itself. Actually calculating and remitting tax correctly is another. But you can rely on your subscription billing provider for both. Also, they’ll automatically factor your customer’s location and your company’s tax nexus into every transaction, and maximize recurring revenue in each region through optimized pricing.

Global Compliance

Important Considerations

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)

Strict PCI DSS compliance is required for any business accepting credit card payments. Recurring auditing fees hinge on a variety of factors — company size, number of transactions processed annually, existing infrastructure, credit card data scope, etc. — and initial implementation is quite costly. Fines for non-compliance, however, can be catastrophic for your business: up to $90 fine per cardholder data compromised, suspension of credit card acceptance, loss of brand reputation, the cost of a PCI Qualified Forensic Investigator ($130-200 per hour for a one to two year project) and much, much more. Additionally, PCI DSS compliant infrastructure, processes and scope are updated at least every two years, so you can’t rest on your laurels.

Privacy Laws for International Sales & Data Transfer

Applicable privacy laws are another serious consideration. Because laws, regulations, standards and best practices around this are continually changing, they require constant monitoring. Your business needs to respond immediately to any sudden changes that impact business practices, like Canada’s recent Anti-SPAM legislation (for which violators face penalties up to $10,000,000).

Global Trade Compliance Regulations

These are constantly being updated, so you need to stay abreast of any countries in which an embargo or other specific trade rules apply. Without screening and escalation processes in place for identifying embargoed countries and individuals or organizations on the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) watch list, you run the risk of non-compliance with U.S. export regulations. That can lead to 10 to 30 years of imprisonment and fines between $50,000 and $10,000,000.

European Privacy Laws

Even United States-based companies have to think about European privacy laws when engaging with European customers: European law requires an adequate level of data protection when collecting, processing or storing customer data from European citizens. The German Federal Data Protection Act (FDPA) fines your business up to 300.000€ per violation. Not complying with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) when it goes into effect in 2018 may audit a fine up to €20,000,000 (or up to 4 percent of the annual worldwide turnover, whichever is greater).

Data Breach Notification Laws

In the United States, these laws vary by state. Some states simply provide a maximum civil penalty per breach; other states calculate the penalty based on the number of customers affected. Under Michigan’s statute, a business that knowingly fails to provide the required notice to a customer is fined up to $250 per failure (with a maximum fine of $750,000).

Channel Partner Compliance

If you do business with channel partners (affiliates, resellers, etc.), you must actively screen them to make sure they’re also maintaining compliance with global standards.

Updating Security Infrastructure

Active maintenance of network security infrastructure is also required — for example, outdated versions of a firewall operating system may no longer be compliant.

Key Takeaway

In the unlikely event of a security breach, litigators can claim negligence if it is determined that your business violated compliance standards. A subscription billing provider will protect the personal information of your customers and react immediately to any sudden changes in legislation. Additionally, they will keep you in line with global trade compliance regulations, ensuring that you don’t conduct business in embargoed countries.

Keystone

We all get by with a little help from our friends. On top of offloading internal operations and reducing processing costs, utilizing a subscription billing provider actually creates revenue opportunities for your business. You might not have the internal resources required to expand into new markets, comply with global data privacy regulations and prevent fraud while continually nurturing long-term customer relationships — but an experienced provider can help with all of that and more.

To learn more about the hidden costs of global subscription billing, check out our interactive microsite.

The post The Hidden Costs of Subscription Billing appeared first on cleverbridge.

It’s easy to make decisions centered on these influences, however, it’s not smart because it’s not driven by real data. We know you are in a hurry, but if you take the time to do some A/B testing, you will end up with results that can put you on the road to increased revenue.

With testing you will gather actual real information about your specific issue/problem/change/design, and be able to use that data to make factually based decisions, just like the scientists do.

Be a scientist, not a follower. Check out this amusing infographic from Wingify that will help you determine in which scenarios you should A/B test instead of deciding by other methods.

Download our Six Guides on Ecommerce Essentials today.

The post Ecommerce Eye Candy — 14 Times in Business You Should A/B Test [Infographic] appeared first on cleverbridge.

For the September Ecommerce Digest, we’re going to dig into localization, Klarna’s debut in the U.S., the role of shopping carts in subscription commerce, omnichannel shopping challenges, and the impact of chip-and-PIN cards on ecommerce fraud prevention.

Global Ecommerce and Localization

Website Localization Must-Haves For Global Ecommerce | Forrester Research

In this blog post from Forrester Research, Lily Varon writes about what you need to succeed in global ecommerce. This is a topic that is dear to us, and we are happy to see a report detailing global expansion issues like domain names, global gateways, global user interfaces, language elements on a web page, multilingual SEO, customer support best practices, and localized currencies and payment methods.

Alternative Payment Methods

Klarna Launches in the U.S. | Re/code
Speaking of localization … payments! Klarna is a popular payment provider for online Swedish shoppers. Klarna is a compelling payment option because it assumes all the risks of fraud instead of the merchant. If you are looking to gain customers in Sweden, one of the best things you can do is add Klarna to your checkout process. But now Klarna is looking to expand its operations into the U.S. Which merchants will start offering this type of payment for customers outside of Sweden? Will it make a significant impact on conversion rates? It will be interesting to see if Klarna’s attempt at global expansion will disrupt the ecommerce market.

Shopping Carts and Subscription Commerce

Why the Shopping Basket Is the Next Big Thing in Digital Commerce | Demandware
This blog post from Demandware advocates that merchants should “persist that basket,” that is, they should not neglect the great power of the online shopping cart to drive sales and retarget bouncing visitors. We do not disagree that the cart is a crucial element of ecommerce success. But just as conversion rates are less relevant in today’s subscription dominated market, so is a narrow focus on shopping carts. The real question is, “How are you messaging customers before and after they create a cart?” Today’s subscription dominated market demands attention to the entire customer lifecycle — not just the cart.

Content Marketing

Primer by Google Is Here to Make You a Better Marketer | NewsCred
Looking to learn more about marketing automation or creating relevant search ads? This interview with Hope Friedland, Content Lead at Primer, showcases a new educational app from Google. It is a handy library of content that helps people learn the ins and outs of digital marketing. It is designed to be consumed by mobile device users on the go, and it is highly interactive. Aside from the educational content, this app also serves as a source of inspiration to marketers thinking about alternative ways of educating their audiences and communicating brand value.

Omnichannel Shopping

MasterCard Busts Myths of the Omnichannel Consumer | PYMNTS
We love the image offered in this post of today’s digital shopper as “a patient, skilled, value-seeking missile.” Based on MasterCard’s The Retail CMO’s Guide to the Omnishopper, PYMNTS explains that customers research their purchases piecemeal: over time, in both physical and online spaces. Even in the digital world, they search across different devices and through different channels. The main point here is to consider where your customers are viewing your messages, and to make sure those messages are consistent.

Fraud Prevention

How Chip-and-PIN Credit Cards Protect Consumers From Fraud | NPR
This interview with security expert Brian Krebs discusses the  impact of this switch and notes the difference in the European and American cultures of using credit cards at physical stores. Many countries adopted chip-and-PIN credit cards a while back, and the U.S. is slowly catching up on this important security improvement. However, as we explained a year and a half ago, blocking one avenue of fraud is sure to send the fraudsters looking for another way to steal your customers’ personal information and money. Krebs notes that it is not just online shopping carts that are affected by a new surge in fraud activity: New account fraud and account takeovers are going to occur too.

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.

The post September Ecommerce Digest appeared first on cleverbridge.

These five best practices can help you effectively advertise in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa).

Know Your Customers

Knowing your customer base is important for every region you advertise in. Success will come by creating trust with your customer base, delivering the right content and media, and advertising products that are valuable to them. There is no point talking about the German Bundesliga in Italy, or Gaelic Football (GAA) outside of Ireland.

Overcome Language Barriers

One of the greatest challenges in advertising to customers in EMEA is the language barrier. Europe itself has the greatest linguistic and cultural diversity of the Western world. Although English is considered the international business language, certain cultures relate better to advertisements in their native language. Examples are: the French, Germans, Russians, Spanish and Italians.

If you only have English ads available, use British English terms when targeting EMEA customers rather than American phrases. For example: The word “vacation” is used in the US and “holiday” is used in British English. The same goes for the season “fall,” which is used in the US, while “autumn” is more commonly used in British English.

Follow Country-Specific Laws

Since the rules and regulations of online marketing are regularly reviewed and updated, it is important to know your online advertising laws. For example, on May 11, 2011, the European Union made changes to how companies worldwide are allowed to collect or use information from European website visitors. The legislation is called the European E-Privacy Directive. The same goes for the Middle East, where religious, cultural and political factors need to be considered before targeting this region.

Products and Services

Getting a product or service in front of the right consumers is always a challenge — especially when you are advertising on a global scale. It is difficult to promote a product or service that consumers are not familiar with. Some questions you should always ask yourself:

• Is there a demand for this product or service in EMEA?
• Who are the major competitors?
• Does it make sense to advertise in this country?
• Is this product legal?
• Do we need to translate the name?

Both Clairol and the Irish alcoholic drink Irish Mist did not properly consider the German language when they launched their products there. Clairol’s hair-curling iron Mist Stick and the drink Irish Mist both flopped. Why? ‘Mist’ is the German word for “manure.” Fancy a glass of Irish manure?

Localization and Currencies

If you are focusing on one particular country, it is important to offer the right currency. For example, it does not make sense to advertise a price in Japanese yen if you are promoting a product to French consumers. You want the product or service to relate to your audience as best as possible and for them to make fewer decisions throughout the buying process. Before diving in to a specific market, take time to research which countries within EMEA you want to focus on and how you would treat the different language, cultural and business issues, rather than treating EMEA as one. Ask for guidance from your vendors and manufacturers on which countries convert best and if they have any particular advice for you.

Find out if you need any extra links or banners for a certain region. Vendors are usually open to sending additional content in order to help drive sales.

Once you are aware of the potential setbacks and challenges you face when promoting within the EMEA region, creating a plan of action based on these best practices can help you overcome many hurdles along the way.

Amy Carabini is an Affiliate Marketing Manager at cleverbridge.

The post Best Practices for Affiliate Marketing in EMEA appeared first on cleverbridge.

However, entering any of these markets successfully is no easy feat, so you should read this infographic from Cognizant as it explores the international ecommerce opportunity and its challenges.

For merchants of physical goods, shipping infrastructures can be obstacles to overcome, and localization remains a problem for everyone: Sixty six percent of the top 500 Internet retailers ship to 50 or more countries, yet only 28 percent of them display a localized website for their international customers. Only eight percent provide customer service in a language other than English. Other challenges for companies trying to do business overseas involve offering prices and payments in local currencies, and displaying applicable taxes in foreign markets.

It may be difficult to overcome these challenges single-handedly, but the payoff for capturing revenue from new markets is worth the effort. Take a look at your traffic sources and determine where visitors are coming from, and localize your website for them.

What challenges have you overcome on your way to expanding global ecommerce revenue?

Tell us about them in the comment section!

The post Ecommerce Eye Candy – Global Ecommerce [Infographic] appeared first on cleverbridge.

This infographic examining the Indian ecommerce market was submitted to us by a reader, and it was produced by HappyCheckout, a coupon site based in Hyderabad, India.

I recommend taking the sales numbers in the second section of the infographic with a grain of salt, as the four charts do not add up. For example, the chart labeled Retail Ecommerce Sales Growth does not correspond with the numbers in the B2C Ecommerce Sales chart, which does not correspond to the percentage growths listed in the Annual B2C Ecommerce Sales Growth chart. The overall numbers in B2C Ecommerce Sales chart are far greater than the numbers I’ve seen in other publications, while the percentage growths in the Annual B2C Ecommerce Sales Growth are smaller.

For better context, refer to Forrester’s India Online Retail Forecast, 2013 To 2018 which states that currently only two percent of India’s population of 1.28 billion are online shoppers, and Forrester’s Capture The Global eCommerce Opportunity report which puts India’s B2C ecommerce market at $7.2 billion.

According to Gartner, “The India eCommerce market will reach $6 billion in 2015, a 70 percent increase over 2014 revenue of $3.5 billion.” Meanwhile, ASSOCHAM (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India) made headlines last year by stating that the Indian ecommerce market is $16 billion.

What is not in dispute is India’s continued growth and its vast potential, which makes it ripe for vendors to consider as a new potential long term market. There are three important points to remember:

• Mobile shoppers vastly outnumber desktop shoppers.
• Cash on delivery is a required payment method.
• Vendors may have to partner with larger online marketplaces before gaining enough traction to sell directly to buyers.

The post Ecommerce Eye Candy – Indian Ecommerce Market [Infographic] appeared first on cleverbridge.