There are many factors that will impact your Magento store's international conversion rate, some will take significant investment, but there are fundamental quick wins that can give your international sales a major boost.
As a Magento store owner, no doubt you’re making use of analytics to monitor website hits, to make sure your marketing is going well and you’re attracting lots of people and keeping them onsite for a good bounce rate but, despite that, maybe the international sales just aren’t coming in.
The difference between who visits your site and who buys something is called the ecommerce conversion rate, or when selling internationally the international ecommerce conversion rate (iECR). This is a percentage figure which, for example if you have three sales from 100 visits will be 3%.
The average Magento international ecommerce conversion rate for your sector will vary and you can find out more about that here.
So, what’s stopping people from making a sale when they’ve been on your site for a long while and seem to like what you’re offering. Well, it’s mostly nothing to do with your products and more to do with how the visitor views your site and how you’re going to get their ordered shipped to them.
So, what do you need to be mindful of?
Offer multiple currency options on check out
While it’s important to make sure your international visitors can read your website in their native tongue, you need to also make sure they can pay in their local currency too. There are multiple plugins that can help take care of this for you, with Magento highlighting using Amazon Pay as a good solution. But PayPal and others can also take care of this too.
Make sure your customs and tax charges aren’t a surprise
How many of us have been tempted by what appears to be a bargain only to see any savings swallowed up by tax and cross-border customs charges? Magento make it very clear themselves that, “Transparency is key to reducing cart abandonment rates. Shoppers want to know exactly what they will pay—including taxes—right from the cart.” They integrate with Vertex to help their store owners access automatic, real-time, and accurate sales tax calculations.
Give them unbeatable shipping options
Sending an item to a customer shouldn’t be an extra burden for them. Yes, you need to cover costs, but don’t make shipping a profit-making service. Yes, larger retailers have the power to offer low-cost and free shipping but now customers are expecting this, smaller stores need to follow suit as best they can. Speaking to an international courier like Asendia will help you access shipping options that suit all budgets, wherever your customers may be.
Free or partially paid returns
Invesp found a massive 67% of shoppers will check a business’s return process before making a purchase. Before you have even made a sale, you need to consider how your customer might send something back. It sounds backwards but it will make all the difference. Offering free returns will give people the confidence that buying from you isn’t going to leave them out of pocket if they need to return something, so it will increase your Magento store's international ecommerce conversion rate and, with people loving your products once they received them, your profitability too.
Flexible payment terms
This is a relatively new option for independent stores but one that Magento feels is a great way to give customer’s confidence in your business. Klarna can give customers a choice of paying right away, paying layer (in 30-days) so they can try-before-they-buy, and even paying in instalments at a low-interest rate. This flexibility is proving very popular with Klarna finding that merchants see a 62% higher average order value for customers using their credit solutions. Not bad when you also get peace of mind as Klarna covers all credit and fraud risk and makes sure you are paid for ordered goods.
Some great tips if you’re a Magento store owner that highlight some of the support options they offer to help with your international ecommerce conversion rate, but if you need to find out more about shipping options and returns processes that will set you apart from your competitors, get in touch and we’ll see what we can do to help.
Asendia's international parcel and returns services are trusted by leading Magento store owners looking to optimise their international e-commerce conversion rate. Contact us to find out more.
