Virgin Global

China's online payment services ride e-commerce boom

2009-04-23T09:21:00.000-07:00

E-commerce is booming in China as consumers and vendors look to the Internet to save money in tough economic times, but the main beneficiary of their migration may be online payment providers.

Chinese payment providers like 99Bill Corp. have soared on the growth of Internet shopping, changing user attitudes and their own success at offering new payment options in a country where credit cards remain rare.

More at: The Industry Standard

Increase your checkout conversion

2009-04-21T09:02:00.000-07:00

One strategy for increasing your checkout conversion is to provide more payment options at checkout. According to Global Collect, an international payments provider, merchants can increase their conversion rate by over 20% by offering three or more payment options. This is especially true when your store caters to an international customer base.

source: http://www.globalcollect.com

Research shows that depending on country, and demographic group, consumers indicate that given equivalent pricing and product, accepting the payment type they prefer is a key influencer in their purchase decision.

BusinessWeek article on Alibaba

2009-04-20T11:17:00.002-07:00

How China's Alibaba Is Surviving and Thriving

Jack Ma says he saw it coming. Over a year ago, when Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual were still going concerns, many business leaders and economists in Asia thought China would avoid damage from America's deepening financial mess. Ma, founder and chairman of e-commerce power Alibaba.com, wasn't one of them.

More...

Movements in China

2009-04-17T09:06:00.000-07:00

The latest development came Thursday, when eBay said it would pay up to $1.2 billion for Gmarket, an online marketplace in South Korea that it hopes will be a springboard into other parts of Asia, where it has had limited success.

Read more at: E-Bay moves into Asia

Chinese internet giant Alibaba Group has partnered with Japanese apparel retailer Fast Retailing Co for online sales in China, the Wall Street Journal reported. Fast Retailing’s flagship clothing chain Uniqlo will collaborate with Taobao.com, Alibaba’s consumer e-commerce site in which customers can make purchases either from branded stores or from other users via online auctions.

Read more at: Alibaba's new partnership

International Payment Risk

2009-04-14T08:44:00.001-07:00

Whenever you bring payment risk into a conversation you need to balance the need to prevent fraud with your desired sales conversion. Internationally, purchasing patterns differ depending on the country and payment type. You may need to tweak some of your parameters including address verification systems (AVS) and card authentication tools.

There are three categories payment risk falls under:

1. Credit – the risk that a customer will not have sufficient funds

2. Fraud – the risk that payments are accepted with deceptive information

3. Repudiation – the risk that a customer does not honor their payment (charge-backs)

It is best to work with a payment specialist that understands the global market when deploying your payment solution. Many markets are still fragmented and a misstep while navigating the global payment marketplace can set you back several months.

Australian Spam Act

2009-04-14T08:12:00.000-07:00

Australia’s Spam Act of 2003 regulates the practice of sending unsolicited commercial electronic messages, as well as the use of address-harvesting software. Violators are subject to civil penalties and injunctions. The Australian Spam Act entered into force on April 11, 2004, and was revised in December 2005. Following, there is a brief description of the scope of this act.

More information at Internet Business Law Services

Tango Marketing with Argentina

2009-04-13T07:00:00.000-07:00

So, I’m doing the tango in Buenos Aires…. I’m in all black and she adorns a velvety blue … And then I wake up….

In the real world I am helping a prospect look into payment processing solutions in Argentina. As always I started to dive into their marketing efforts and provided some insight that they found useful. So – long story short, I thought I would share some of the conversation here.

The rules to promoting a website internationally are the same wherever you go; create localized content, localized keywords, register local domain names, and then promote it through local search engines, affiliate marketing, online and offline branding and promotions.

Pay-Per-Click campaigns on targeted Argentine websites and search engines is great for immediate results.

The top level domain in Argentina is .ar.

Top search engines:
Ahijuna
Arnet
Google Argentina
Grippo
Yahoo! Argentina
Buscapique

Source: http://www.search-engine-index.co.uk/country/Argentina.asp

Is your SaaS app ready for the global market?

2009-04-09T07:56:00.000-07:00

Well…

I can think of a few things to consider here. Number one on my list would be, what percentage of sales or inquiries do your currently get internationally? Are they from a specific region? I know these seem like basic requirements for thinking about international expansion, but there always seems to be one yahoo in power within medium sized start-ups that has a brain fart and decides to go after Latin America because it would be fun to travel to Brazil. Send that person on vacation to Rio, but don’t change your business.

If you have a business that is organically selling into a region by the tune of 5% or more of your sales then you should start to consider things. In my experience you have great potential to double or triple your sales in that region by focusing your efforts. The beauty of SaaS is that you can move relatively quickly and you don’t necessarily require additional resources in the region.

OK – so your thinking: Can we support the time zone, tax implications, currency rates, contracts, cultural differences, ahhhhh! Run for the hills!

So let’s come back to the premise that you CURRRENTLY are getting 5% or more of your business in that region. I have one simple question: Will international expansion take your focus off where the real money is?

Now let’s ask a different question. Is the global market ready for your SaaS application?

Depends on many factors including your app of course, but SaaS seems to be growing in much of the world. A recent Gartner survey showed that 77 percent of North American companies plan to increase their SaaS deployments and 64 percent of European companies plan to do so as well. Another interesting takeaway was that 37 percent of global respondents are interested in eliminating traditional enterprise applications from their IT environments in favor of SaaS.

In the past, the road to international expansion has been daunting. In this new age of crackberries, iPhones, SaaS and ice cream snickers anything is possible. Well – it’s still tough, but somebody’s gotta do it, so why not you?

China Stats

2009-04-08T07:54:00.000-07:00

According to Credit Suisse First Boston report, the Chinese consumer is going to replace the US consumer as a primary engine of global growth by 2014.

China’s online shopping market is expected to grow to $18.45 billion this year compared to last year’s figure of $8.2 billion according to Shanghai-based tech consultancy iResearch. Wow.

80% of Chinese youth under 24 use the Internet.

Most popular purchases? Books & Publications, Audio/Video, Clothing, Mobile phones, Home goods, MP3 players and Cosmetics.

Downside to growth? The same issues that have hurt the Chinese e-commerce market from the get go. Trust, payment systems and logistics. The good news is that new payment solutions like Alibaba Group’s payment system Alipay, and a universal link into direct debit systems called IPS, are helping to allay fears of fraud with a population that is not accustomed to making purchases on the web.

With over 250 million internet users, who are now getting more comfortable with the web, China is going to be THE GIANT.

Time to Domicile! Say what?

2009-04-07T07:56:00.000-07:00

I have to what? I have to domicile where?

I have been in on several conversations where plans to sell aggressive globally halt at this point. The reality is that some countries may require you to have a local, physical presence in order to do e-business.

Ouch.

If a country doesn’t require you to setup shop there, it will probably be necessary at some point, because you will benefit from lower merchant fees and more favorable interchange rates.

Another point to consider is that if you do not have a local acquiring (bank) relationship you may be missing out on a significant amount of potential card business. I know from my own experience that with Carte Bleue in France you will not be able to process about 30% of the cards if you don’t have the correct local banking relationship set up.

The good news is that you may be able to create regional relationships that cover a swath of countries like in the European Union.

As always I would say it is best to consult with an international business consultant. But where can you find one of those? Hmmm…. Just ask and I can get you in touch with the right people.

(BTW: My definition of a global web business is that you have setup marketing, sales and payment systems to support the country you are selling to)

Xin Baby! Xin!

2009-04-06T12:46:00.000-07:00

“Xin” (trustworthiness) is an important philosophy among Chinese consumers. Our business Xin is key to online sales, especially when dealing with international e-commerce.

What are the top three items to consider when building trustworthiness globally? I don’t know. But here are three that come to mind.

Culture correctness – Understanding cultural values and distinct no-no’s can make or break your e-commerce efforts. Doing business in China? Pictures of clocks may symbolize death. Tell you what – stay away from clocks for now. Also, stay away from the numbers 4 and 7 which may relate to death. Death – I say!

Available payment options – In general, providing at least three payment options increases conversion at checkout by up to 20%. This is especially true in the global market. In Germany Direct Debit and Real Time Banking (like Giropay) are preferred payment options over credit card. According to the Bank of international Payments, 60% of online payments in Germany are via Direct Debit. Not offering Direct Debit solutions in Germany is like not offering cards at a US coffee shop. Not going in there again! What does this have to do with trustworthiness? Let’s just say not everyone in the world trusts credit cards and leave it at that.

Language – Translating your site can be a pain in the #$%. However, if you are serious about attracting business from a specific market, it can make all of the difference in the world. According to Overture France, the French consumer will look for information on the web in the French language approximately 94% of the time. They are not attracted to English advertisements. You think you can sell to China, Japan and Brazil without language translation? OK.

Please share with us your comments on trustworthiness in the global e-commerce market…