This document discusses strategies for international e-commerce expansion. It recommends evaluating demand across markets using data and behavior trends, localizing key elements like payment options and language while maintaining a consistent brand experience. The document also stresses the importance of understanding local cultures and calendars to plan campaigns around meaningful moments, and using social media and search insights to refine product offerings and monitor sentiment.

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Matter Of Form
Brand Interaction Agency
- Brand Consultancy
- E-Commerce & Digital Product Development
- Mobile Applications
- Creative Communications & Content
- Social Media & Influencer Outreach
- SEO & PPC

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We believe that the moments when brands and people !
come together change business.

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- Sting CD ‘Ten Summers Tales’
- PGP - Pretty Good Privacy. $12.99.
- The first e-commerce transaction, 20 years ago…

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source: raconteur.net
…things have come a long way.
- Trade surplus is driven by fashion.
- By 2020, 40% of UK e-commerce will be export.
- $1 billion globally, set to grow…

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- …to $1.4bn, with the extra .4 from China.
- This will change the way we shop.
- Leapfrog effect in developing countries. Our work on Grow Africa with the
World Economic Forum has been eye opening.
- Smartphones are perceived as ‘cheap computers’, not expensive phones.
- Brands moving directly into pure-play.

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- 25% would shop more if they had faster internet (vs. 6% in Europe).
- 3x more concern over fraud.
- Infrastructure changes will drive huge demand.

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4 considerations.

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The Behind the Scenes Bit.

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- Stock Management.
- Eye opening some larger brands even manage to get products to market.
- Invest now, not later. After £10m rev. things get tricky.
- Nieman Marcus - £100m in tech infrastructure.

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- Insight gained working with fashion brands led us to identify an
opportunity.
- Wholesale-Retail sales were manual and inefficient.
- Last minute process, causing stress for sales teams.
- We designed a digital line sheet platform, and headed to Europe to test.
- Decided to focus on lingerie. Rational reasons.

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- Sell stock more efficiently.
- Better service wide retailer footprints.
- Control margins, empower retailers, overcome timezones.
- Orlebar Brown scaled their sales team from 0-5 overnight when entering the
US.
- The team knew what they were selling, with segmented collections and brand
material.

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- Identify ‘hero’ customers.
- Segment.
- Understand roadblocks in your purchase funnel - assess UX.
- Charlotte Tilbury identified 50% of overseas demand was not being serviced.

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- 35% of these clicks lead to a purchase.
- Emails sent within 20 minutes achieve 5.2%.

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- Virtual showrooms achieve
21% increase in conversion.
- 73% increase in purchase
trust.
- Mitigate returns.

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- An phenomenal number of large brands use outdated stock systems.
- An ERP should be your master database. Hub & Spoke.
- Take steps to control your sales processes.
- Put processes in place now, not later.
- Re-engage with consumers.

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Logistics.

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- Asos is 70% International.
- All shipped from the UK.
- Light-touch internationalisation.
- 237 markets, only 9 languages.
- Multilingual marketing from North London.

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- Germans pay by bank transfer.
- Americans expect to pick up the phone. And get paid every 2
weeks.
- Cash on delivery in China still 20% (down from 80%).
Demanding consumers (especially in luxury), no loyalty.
- Returns. Not homogenised across EU.

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- Test through marketplaces (even if just short term).
- Tao Bao (90% of c2c) and TMall in china.
- Platforms such as Channel Advisor allows you to centralise.

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- Test from home.
- Localise where it matters.
- Understand tax and payment nuances.
- Assess local fulfilment vs. global shipping.

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Evaluate Opportunity.
- 100bn searches daily. 15% are new. Lots of inputs.
- Use the outputs!

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- Where does the demand sit?

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- What does behaviour tell us?

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- Does seasonal demand vary?
- Use trends at a category level
as it is language agnostic.

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Serve local urls (especially with Magento).
Get href langs in your sitemap (keep that link juice!)

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- Use data to inform your growth strategy.
- Stay lean: be progressive in your approach.
- Don’t go after the obvious opportunities. Use data.

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The Interaction.

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- Plan for your local calendar (macro).
- Prepare content.
- 2x more sales than Cyber Monday.

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- 70% International.
- All shipped from the UK.
- (thats 3 Boeings every day!)
- Plan moments (micro).
- Twitter represents the real world.
- Be confident, leverage local events.

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- Use hashtags at the centre of integrated campaigns
- 24% of shoppers use social for opinions (more in Asia).
- Find local influencers and whitelist promoted tweets.
- Segment audience groups (get specific!).
https://business.twitter.com/success-stories/tommyhilfiger

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- Social commerce is growing.
- 7x conversions through
Instagram.

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- But understand the channel culture, as
well as the country culture.
- Get your TOV right for the medium (don't
do a Gucci!)

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- We’re getting better at search.
- Our memory is shrinking.
- Our ability to assess how to find things is increasing.
- Searches by intent increasing by 1.5x. Will increase with wearables, GoogleNow, Siri…
- Use search data to drive content strategy. Search is true. Social is curated.

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- Feedback informs product strategy.
- 35% of staff are editorial.
- Soundcloud status actively drives significant revenue.
- 2 years old. 35k orders/month.
- strong sCRM. Membership. Retention. Recommendation.

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- How might your brand be perceived differently?
- Be open to change.
- Monitor sentiment.
Dr Martens; eCommerce Futures Panel Discussion

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- Understand the local calendar. Plan ‘moments’.
- Use social commerce to monitor sentiment.
- Social media as a curated expose. Search as a research medium.
- Niche travels. Refine your proposition. What does your brand mean.

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Thank You.Now go Make Interactions that Create Value.
!
!
Anant Sharma, CEO.
anant@matterofform.com | +44 203 141 2000
@matterofform | @anant_sharma