PayPal's 3-Step Guide to International Selling

During the holidays, shopping malls are jam packed with with shoppers. That is why more people are opting to go online to shop to avoid the Christmas rush.

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According to a study done by eMarketer, the Asia Pacific region is a hotbed of online shoppers. In fact, the study projected a growth of up to USD 2.725 trillion by the year 2020. The retail e-commerce sales globally are projected to top USD 27 trillion by 2020 as well.

Since we are part of the Asia Pacific, these figures are good news for the Philippines. The local online market is projected to swell up to USD 19 billion by the year 2025. That is why PayPal would like to lay down the groundwork to help the local e-commerce peeps go global.

Before anything else, you need to lay down a plan. Businesses need to know their targets and goals. Without it, a business can easily lose its way with the lack of direction. 

Here is PayPal's 3-Step Guide to International Selling

1. Find Your Target Markets - You need to know your target audience. You should know your potential international customer's preferences and profiles like what they buy and their shopping habits. You can start by researching which countries are buying similar products from yours.

2. Consider How Customers Want to Pay - This is an important step into penetrating the international market. You need to find a way to get paid securely and efficiently. You need to find out the most popular payment method in the country that you are expanding in so that your customers can easily transact with you.

A good payment provider like PayPal can easily address the most common problems when it comes to payments in international markets. Convenient features such as a clear currency conversion is important since people are more willing to pay if your prices are in a familiar currency. Security is also an important focus that payment providers should have and PayPal is one of the leaders in that department.

3. Plan Your Market Entry - You have a few options in terms of announcing your entry in an international market. You can either choose to start small on an established online marketplace, optimize your current website to accommodate international customers or set up local web presence in your target country.

Online marketplace such as eBay is a great choice if you want to start small. You are allowed to test the demand for your products before you commit a large amount of your products. There are also localized online markets that can also be a great option.

You can also optimize your website so that you can highlight that you are able to accept international orders with information regarding which countries you are currently serving and shipping credentials.

With these three steps, Paypal is certain that you can start penetrating the global market.