We have just signed up to a website in Germany which is similar to eBay but better! It seems to be really busy.
The cost is £39.00 a month but there are no selling fees. Card fees are only 2%.
As you know eBay take three bites of the cherry:
1.The listing fee
2. The selling fee
3. 4% Paypal commission.
We tried selling our products in the UK on eBay but found the pricing very competitive and after eBay had taken their cut it was not worthwhile.
There are fewer competitors on this German site and the fees are lower. If we can sell only 20 items a month the fees work out much cheaper than eBay.
I am looking forward to promoting a wide range of goods, not just our own products but also locally made items from our area of Gloucestershire.
Once you create a new marketing channel you can theoretically push all kinds of things down it!
Friday, 9 April 2010
Thursday, 1 April 2010
SELLING ONLINE TO EUROPE
Many businesses want to export their goods or services but it seems that not many small enterprises have the confidence to set up a website in a foreign language. Strangely there is little assistance from the government in this area. I have talked to Business Link and searched the web and there are a few London based web consultants who offer “localisation” of sites but there is no big drive to get UK businesses online in Europe. To set up a small German language website would not cost very much in relative terms but could expose a business to 86 million German consumers. Possibly businesses are put off by translation costs but in my experience these are not material: perhaps £40 a page.
It is relatively easy to set up the website but the fun starts when you try and adapt to the needs of the overseas consumers. Our own experience is mostly with our German website and we find that customers like to discuss their order first. We have not gone as far as putting a phone number on the site but we do answer lots of email enquiries. My own German is at O-level standard but our translator is happy to answer ad hoc questions by email and with the help of one of the cheap translator programs we get by. We have built up a library of replies to the most common questions about our business so 9 out of 10 enquiries can be responded to within the hour.
Payment methods may differ. Europeans seem to use credit cards less than in the UK and like to pay by bank transfer. We opened a German bank account for this purpose. It took us a few months to find a bank in Germany who would do this and the application form was in German but we persevered. The UK banks are completely useless in advising how to do this so do not waste your time asking your local bank. Once you have a bank which is connected to the European banking system you can accept same day payments at zero cost from customers all over Europe. You can also pay suppliers; we seem to be buying more stock from Europe than we used to, just because paying is so much easier this way.
Lastly you have to get your goods to the customer. We sell items which are small and under 1kg in weight and need to arrive within 3 days. Royal Mail’s Airsure service is a joke, you pay £5 extra for a quick service and the package can still take 8 days to arrive in Germany. Fortunately Deutsche Post now owns one of the big UK courier firms so we have signed up to use their postal service. Another of the courier firms is owned by the French P/O so sending small packets cheaply to Europe is becoming easier. (I wish the same could be said of the USA).
Copyright Michael Ennis 2010
01453 753149
It is relatively easy to set up the website but the fun starts when you try and adapt to the needs of the overseas consumers. Our own experience is mostly with our German website and we find that customers like to discuss their order first. We have not gone as far as putting a phone number on the site but we do answer lots of email enquiries. My own German is at O-level standard but our translator is happy to answer ad hoc questions by email and with the help of one of the cheap translator programs we get by. We have built up a library of replies to the most common questions about our business so 9 out of 10 enquiries can be responded to within the hour.
Payment methods may differ. Europeans seem to use credit cards less than in the UK and like to pay by bank transfer. We opened a German bank account for this purpose. It took us a few months to find a bank in Germany who would do this and the application form was in German but we persevered. The UK banks are completely useless in advising how to do this so do not waste your time asking your local bank. Once you have a bank which is connected to the European banking system you can accept same day payments at zero cost from customers all over Europe. You can also pay suppliers; we seem to be buying more stock from Europe than we used to, just because paying is so much easier this way.
Lastly you have to get your goods to the customer. We sell items which are small and under 1kg in weight and need to arrive within 3 days. Royal Mail’s Airsure service is a joke, you pay £5 extra for a quick service and the package can still take 8 days to arrive in Germany. Fortunately Deutsche Post now owns one of the big UK courier firms so we have signed up to use their postal service. Another of the courier firms is owned by the French P/O so sending small packets cheaply to Europe is becoming easier. (I wish the same could be said of the USA).
Copyright Michael Ennis 2010
01453 753149
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