Stages of entering the international market

Study

Formulate a list of markets that are potentially interesting to us

Collect information about these markets (size, competitors, features, is the product suitable in this market, is it suitable as is or changes are needed)

MVP

A minimum number of actions so that the product can work in selected markets (through agencies, partners, outsourcing)

Testing

Start selling in these markets

Cleaning

Identify leading markets - those in which our MVP shows the best results and fits into unit economics

Markets that operate at a loss - refuse

Not at a loss, but not leaders - don't put effort into them if possible. If resources/focus are wasted, refuse

Leaders - strengthen

Gain

Assess which improvements will maximize sales over a period of time, create a roadmap

Transfer expertise from outside (from partners) to yourself

Transfer operations and processes from outside (for example, logistics and marketing) to yourself, where it is economically feasible

Next, what subtasks are involved in entering a new market? And possible scenarios for how to do them at the MVP stages and at the Strengthening stage. During the information gathering stage, these are questions that need to be answered.

The goal of an MVP is to enter the market, get the first sales, and not work at a loss. Do this as quickly as possible and without harm to the main business.

The goal of Strengthening is to take maximum market share. Gather knowledge and expertise within the company. Transfer operations and business processes to yourself.

Marketing

How will users find out about our product? For example: paid advertising (facebook, google), influencers, marketplaces (amazon, ebay, wish...), exhibitions, SEO, etc.

  MVP: current team or agency. Select promising channels and test each one

  Strengthening: separate command: pump up channels that have shown effectiveness

Sales channels

Where will they buy our product? On our website or on the marketplace or offline or somewhere else?

  MVP: select no more than 3 most promising ones. Most likely, don’t touch offline, start either from the website or from marketplaces

  Gain: enter all channels, in order from most effective to least effective. Efficiency consists of volume, cost, launch timing

Sales

Do we need a sales team? Who will do the sales? How will they do this?

MVP: manager from the current team, sales people - part time local freelancers

Strengthening: full-time local salespeople, not necessarily in the office

Localization

Who will translate, how the user will get to the corresponding version of the site, how translations will be implemented at the site level, how they will be integrated into all processes in the company: development, design, marketing. SEO localization.

MVP: Depends on the current product architecture. find the fastest solution

Strengthening: implement a good solution that does not hinder the further development of the product in each market

Adaptation

Does anything need to be changed in the product for this market? For example, composition, packaging, in the case of an online store - assortment, etc.

MVP: if you don’t change anything, the quality of the product can be assessed as “satisfactory”? If unsatisfactory, it needs to be changed.

Strengthening: how to adapt a product to be “excellent” and not “satisfactory”? Give it your all

Accepting payments

How do users pay in the desired country? By cards or cash or something else? What payment methods do they need? How can we connect these methods? If they don’t pay with cards, but pay the courier in cash, it affects logistics.

MVP: determine which payment options are “mandatory”, implement only them.

Strengthening: provide the maximum number of necessary payment methods to make it convenient for the user - thereby increasing conversion to sales

This is just a small list of everything you will encounter when entering the international segment. Together with AVSEO, companies go through all stages of adaptation to the new market and maximize their profits.