Premia TNC Hong Kong Team
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Building an Overseas Sales Strategy for Brands
For domestic brands, strategies for success in overseas markets must go beyond simple sales and focus on sustainable brand growth. Leveraging overseas marketplaces and your own online store is a key way to effectively establish your brand in the global market. This article compares the pros and cons of overseas marketplaces and your own online store and discusses how to combine the two channels strategically to grow your brand.
Understanding What an Overseas Marketplace Entails
Overseas marketplaces refer to online shopping platforms widely used by global consumers, such as Amazon, eBay, Rakuten, and AliExpress. Utilizing these marketplaces can help you increase brand awareness in overseas markets while reducing initial investment costs.
The Perks:
- Rapid Market Entry: Marketplaces already have a large traffic and consumer base, allowing brands to quickly enter the market. New brands can also build awareness in a short period of time.
- Low Initial Investment: There is no need to build a separate website or manage servers, significantly reducing initial investment costs. Utilizing the advertising and promotional tools provided within the marketplace allows for effective marketing at a low cost.
- Access to a Global Consumer Base: Because marketplaces target a multinational consumer base, they allow you to quickly expand into various countries. This greatly aids your brand’s globalization.
Considerations:
- Fees and Competition: Selling on marketplaces requires a certain percentage of fees, and with so many sellers, price competition can be intense. This can lower margins.
- Lack of Brand Identity: Since multiple sellers can list the same product, it is difficult to maintain a unique brand identity.
- Limited Consumer Information: The difficulty in directly collecting consumer information through marketplaces may limit your ability to build long-term customer relationships.
- Increased Competition: With more competitors, price competition may intensify, putting your sales margins at risk.
Key Differences Between Owning a Mall and Selling on Overseas Marketplaces
A private online store is an independent online store operated directly by a brand. It can be easily built using various platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and Cafe24. Operating a private online store allows you to emphasize your brand’s uniqueness and manage customer data directly, enabling you to design more effective marketing strategies.
The Upsides of Operating Your Own Mall:
- Strengthen Your Brand Identity: Build relationships with your customers by reflecting your unique design and brand story.
- Maximize Your Profits: Avoid high marketplace fees and leverage your promotions and CRM to increase long-term profitability.
- Data Analysis and Utilization: Collect and analyze customer data directly to develop personalized marketing strategies.
- Increase Customer Loyalty: Build loyal customers for your brand, driving long-term business growth.
Considerations:
- Initial Setup Costs: Establishing and operating a private online store incurs initial costs, including website development, marketing, and logistics system setup. If brand awareness is low, attracting traffic can be difficult.
- Need to Build Logistics and Payment Systems: There is the burden of having to set up payment methods and logistics systems for various countries.
- Operational Management Burden: You must handle all operations yourself, including product registration, customer service, and returns processing.
A Hybrid Strategy: Overseas Marketplaces and Your Own Online Mall
Early Entry: Leveraging Marketplaces
For brands entering overseas markets for the first time, leveraging marketplaces to build brand awareness is advantageous. Actively utilize local platforms like Amazon, Shopee, and Qoo10 to conduct market testing. Furthermore, proactively utilize marketplace advertising and promotional features to drive short-term sales growth.
Brand Building Stage: Operating Your Own Mall in Concurrent Operation
After securing a certain customer base through a marketplace, you can increase brand loyalty by operating your own online store in parallel. To achieve this, you can use links to your brand homepage within the marketplace or use product packaging to encourage visits to your online store. Additionally, you should drive traffic to your online store through social media and email marketing.
Long-Term Strategy: Strengthening Direct-to-Consumer (D2C)
In the long term, it’s ideal to build a sales structure centered on your own online store to strengthen direct relationships with customers. To achieve this, it’s necessary to actively communicate with customers through email marketing, social media, YouTube content, and other channels. In the long term, it’s crucial to accumulate customer data, use it to implement customized promotions, and ultimately secure new customers.
Crafting a Successful Global Brand Export and Sales Strategy
- Localization Strategy: Provide localized content tailored to each country, support local payment and shipping methods, and present a convenient shopping experience for consumers.
- Logistics Optimization: Collaborate with overseas logistics partners to build a fast and efficient delivery system, increasing customer satisfaction with expedited delivery.
- Build Brand Trust: Actively leverage customer reviews and feedback and improve your return policy to build consumer trust. A trusted brand can increase customer loyalty.
Incorporating an Overseas Company with Premia TNC
For companies considering entering overseas markets, professional support for local subsidiary establishment and accounting and tax management is key to successful global business operations. As professional service provider, Premia TNC specializes in local subsidiary establishment, accounting, and tax services in various jurisdictions, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Dubai.
Tailored Professional Services with Premia TNC
Supporting Local Corporation Establishments
We support the corporation establishment process in accordance with the corporate law standards of each jurisdiction and are responsible for preparing and submitting the necessary documents.
Accounting and Tax Consultation
We provide tax reporting and advice in accordance with local tax laws, and we ensure your company’s financial soundness through financial statement analysis and customized local accounting audit services.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is the biggest advantage you can get from having your mall?
A private online store offers significant advantages, including the ability to emphasize a brand’s unique identity and directly manage customer data to develop customized marketing strategies. Furthermore, it allows you to avoid marketplace fees and secure higher profitability.
2. How can we optimize logistics in the global market?
In the global market, it’s crucial to collaborate with local logistics partners to establish a fast and efficient delivery system. Furthermore, considering each country’s procedure in terms of tax and customs can optimize logistics processes and enhance customer satisfaction.
Premia TNC Hong Kong Team
Author
Premia TNC Hong Kong is a dynamic team of experts dedicated to supporting businesses and entrepreneurs as they establish, manage, and grow their presence in Singapore and across the region. Premia TNC Hong Kong specializes in providing tailored corporate services, from company incorporation and compliance to tax planning and accounting. With our extensive experience and deep understanding of the local regulatory environment, we are here to make business operations smoother and more efficient.
