Monster Group UK – E-commerce Case Study – It’s never too soon to sell outside the UK market
It’s never too soon to sell outside the UK market
Monster Group UK is a rapidly growing company, with a growing number of brands under their umbrella including Monster Doodles and Monster Racking. Based in York, in the run up to Christmas, their growth has led to them planning a move to a new, bigger site to keep up with their growing needs as a company.
Keith Hunter is a Marketing Specialist at Monster Group that joined them this year. With experience in a number of areas, he’s been working on their international sales channels and examining their options.
Already selling on eBay, Amazon and their own website, they chose to start international expansion on eBay. They had sales from abroad, but primarily through the listings on their UK eBay channel. Looking at the locations of those customers, they identified Spain, Malta and France as some of their initial targets.
Working with an automated translation specialist, and trialling translation on one of their leading lines, they have seen a large increase in their international sales – More than justifying their time and effort. In the 35 days since the translation was implemented, international sales have grown by 382%!
Keith confirmed that while the translation test was fairly painless with the right assistance, they’re currently experimenting with higher prices on items and lower or free shipping to act as an incentive and offset their location overseas to further increase sales. Overall, he is of the opinion that the most difficult and time consuming area so far has been shipping.
While shipping inside Europe was fairly easy to arrange as a single deal with the right company, dispatch to the US and Australia has been more involved. Keith now knows the Volumetric Weight of most of their stock, but it’s been worth it to be able to get the right deals and the best prices – This means their products are even more attractive to overseas customers.
Monster Group’s experience shows that if you are selling online, you are probably already selling to people outside the UK, as the Web doesn’t worry about borders. You can use those sales to help identify opportunities, and it drastically lowers the risks involved in trialling sales directly to those markets. In the 21st century, the information you need is often already there, and the barriers to selling your products in new markets are more about research and preparation.
