International Customer Experience

International shoppers want open access to U.S. retail brands but too often they’re exposed to a less than positive customer experience. Presenting pricing to a British shopper in U.S. dollars or requiring a 5-digit zip code at checkout just won’t do. In fact, you’ll probably alienate that shopper and have a tough time convincing them to come back again.

Online retailers looking to capitalize on international opportunity need to welcome international shoppers and ensure that they offer a customer experience that is as compelling as the one they offer domestic shoppers. That means recognizing them when they come to your site, making them feel welcomed, and showing them that you are experienced selling in their country. In a world where abandonment decisions are made in an instant and rarely reversed – you need to inspire confidence.

Snapping International Lenses on your Website

The FiftyOne solution enables U.S. retailers with international aspirations to detect international customers-in-waiting on their website and welcome them immediately with a localized experience. Retailers enabled with FiftyOne are able to tailor a strong and consistent international customer experience from their existing site, and moreover, from a single Web platform. There are no micro-sites to manage and no second-class brand experiences for their international consumers.

Welcome, International Shopper!

I’ve launched with FiftyOne. Now what?

When an international customer lands on your site they are automatically geo-located so that you can localize the shopping experience. An international session variable is set which instructs your ecommerce site to localize for that specific country, serving up a homepage clearly denoted with a country flag, and all pricing in the local currency.

In a best practices deployment of FiftyOne, a variety of additional localization techniques will be implemented. A prominent banner might read “Now Shipping to the U.K.” or “Flat-rate Shipping to Australia.” Additionally, the FiftyOne ‘Welcome Mat’ would be implemented. The Welcome Mat is a fully-branded lightbox that loads the first time an international consumer lands on your website. The lightbox is customizable and can include logos and branding, content in the local language, country-specific terminology (e.g., VAT vs. Sales tax vs. GST, etc.), assurances regarding pricing and cost certainty, and more. In our experience, merchants who use especially prominent “greeting” messages on the first landing page of visitor sessions have conversion rates 200-300% higher than merchants who do not.

Conversely, non-relevant content – such as banners or offers that are U.S.-specific and unavailable internationally – are suppressed from view so as to remove noise and friction from the user experience. For international customers, less is commonly more when it comes to website elements, promotional messages, and in general, words.

Demonstrate Local Knowledge and Instill Confidence

This country-specific presentation of your ecommerce website instills confidence because it is assertive and demonstrates local knowledge. What it says to the customer is: this retailer knows my country; they’ve done this before; they understand what it means to purchase across borders; and they have demonstrated a clear commitment to the market I live in. Engaging international consumers as early as possible in the shopping experience is critical when trying to win over international shoppers who have been conditioned to expect that U.S. merchants do not ship to their countries.

Guaranteed Landed Costs, No Surprises

Beyond the visual aspects addressed above, FiftyOne does much to engineer the internal mechanics of your international transactions. This includes payment, currency, and risk management.

FiftyOne handles all currency exchange rates and price conversion. This enables us to present accurate prices in the international shopper’s local currency, while guaranteeing the price for the full duration of the transaction. We also calculate import duties and local taxes, which we bundle together with the cost of the product to give your consumer a guaranteed landed cost – in their local currency – with no hidden fees. This means the price they check out with is their all-inclusive guaranteed landed cost. There’s no cash on delivery or hidden fees – ever!

Comprehensive Tracking System, Transparency for Your CSRs

When the shopper finally checks out, he or she gets a fully branded e-mail with their order number and a link to the FiftyOne tracking system. They can click on this link at any time to see where their order is and when it will be delivered.

The FiftyOne tracking application can also be embedded in your own website, with your customer service representatives having full visibility into the FiftyOne system at all times.