5 tips for e-commerce sellers to open up new markets

Before opening a new market, there are many issues to consider. First, you need to ensure that all products have been internally evaluated before launch; before entering a new market today, you need to deal with the following challenges.

Market research

Before expanding your business, you need to understand what your competitors are doing in this country/region, and understanding the strategic planning of your competitors is of great significance to the development of new markets. You can use different online tools to make a detailed competitive analysis. Set Google reminders on competitors’ web pages so that you will receive email reminders every time they go online; also, you can track your opponent’s dynamics on social software such as Twitter. Some one-stop marketing tools, such as Serpsta and Semrush, can provide endless data analysis, customer feedback, and other services.

Reasonable pricing

Thoughts are internationalized, and actions are localized. Many companies are not as good as they do in the domestic market when pricing in new markets. Some products are underpriced, and some products are overpriced. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the pricing methods of oneself and competitors.

It should be noted that there is a difference between the tax-included price and the tax-exclusive price. Tax-included price means that you have the same price for the same product in different regions and countries; for tax-exclusive prices, the original price of the product excluding VAT is always the same, but before the customer pays, it will be based on the price. The location calculates the corresponding value-added tax and adds this tax to the final price.

Problem focus

List all potential markets suitable for your product. Then, keep narrowing the market scope to 3-5, then focus on a market or a small area, pay attention to the problems in it, and then consider the next one after solving the problems in this area market.

Find a local partner.

Local partner companies are already familiar with the local market, and they can provide powerful assistance in product translation or localization, or distribution.

Pay attention to tax rules.

Tax rules for electronic products are changing daily, and companies need to understand how these new laws and regulations will affect their growth plans. Every year, some countries introduce new laws for electronic transactions.

For example, in New Zealand, if consumers try to use VPN to hide their country/region to avoid consumption tax, they may face a fine of up to NZ $ 2,5000.

The above five points are important steps to ensure that you are well informed.

• Register a VAT number in the country/region where you are selling
• Correctly identify the location of the customer and use the corresponding local tax rules
• Submit VAT tax returns on time every quarter
• Keep all data records for 5-10 years (depending on the corresponding national requirements)

The best way to properly handle local VAT-related matters is to find an experienced agent. LOVAT, your best choice on the road to VAT compliance.

EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) related matters

After four years of preparation and debate, the GDPR was formally approved by the European Parliament on April 14, 2016. The GDPR strengthens individuals’ right to protect their data and seeks a unified data protection law across Europe, which will have no regard to the place of data processing, understand the relevant requirements of the GDPR, which will affect the GDPR compliance of your own business.