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

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