Monetize International Traffic & Sell Overseas with FiftyOne
by Elana Birnbaum - August 19th, 2010 11:36 am
If you sell products throughout the U.S. but have always wanted to expand into global markets, there’s no better time to start than now. Using FiftyOne.com, online retailers are now able to easily and effortlessly market their products internationally without all of the usual hassles of having to manage separate sites, shopping carts and shipping calculations. FiftyOne.com is used on well-known corporate sites such as Sears, Buckle, Under Armor and more. By handling all of the logistics and becoming the central point for transactions, shipping and returns, FiftyOne takes the hassle out of doing business in an increasingly globalized world.
ECommerce Partners integrated FiftyOne into the redesign of JildorShoes.com to enable international ecommerce on this US-based website. A high percentage of the traffic to Jildor comes from outside of the US, including: Canada, Australia, China, the UK, Germany and France. Prior to this integration, Jildor lost sales every day as customers were not able to shop on the site. We measured the viability of installing FiftyOne by multiplying the number of international visitors to the site by its conversion to determine potential sales volume. This total was compared to the costs involved and we determined that Jildor would receive a quick ROI and the project was viable.
How Does it Work?
When an international customer visits your website, they immediately see their country flag and prices appear in their local currency. You, the merchant, can choose to include or disallow certain products from showing on international sites. Checkout is fully branded with your design and logo and includes the total price of the order, including the item, international shipping and any duties, import taxes or VAT due. This clear, easy-to-follow order statement guarantees to the customer that there will be no additional fees due upon delivery, giving them the confidence to checkout while knowing exactly what they’re paying, and when they can expect to receive their order.
Once the order is complete, an email automatically confirms their order and is branded with your company’s design and logo. This seamless process helps minimize shopping cart abandonment and order delays, while giving your customer an online tracking number so they can see their order at any time. Then, simply fulfill the order by shipping your product to the FiftyOne hub in New Jersey, and FiftyOne then ships it internationally.
FiftyOne handles all of the issues that have long been considered a thorn in the side of doing online business internationally including customs brokering, in-country returns, fraud screening and payment processing, plus currency conversion and freight forwarding.
Ecommerce is growing around the world. Even barriers such as language, which would have traditionally made selling across borders difficult and cumbersome, are no longer an issue. Using E4X from FiftyOne.com, CEO Michael DeSimone shows that “[t]he level of comfort created by this experience helps retailers monetize any international traffic they may have already had, and drives repeat business.”
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