Marketing Experts Reveal Top Strategies To

[00:01:30]
Arlen:
Welcome to the e-Commerce Marketing Podcast everyone. My name is Arlan Robinson and I am your host. And today we have a very special guest, Ricki Hooker, With 25 years of overseas trade experience, Riki has built and scaled a dozen international businesses from manufacturing, distribution, online marketplaces and ecommerce via the UK in Europe, APEC and North America. Focusing on seamless trade routes and an expert in the myriad of cultural trading differences, Riki joined Global E-Commerce Experts in 2020 as General Manager to reinforce the team that grows E-Commerce sellers into the UK and EU. Now integral to the roll out of GEEs ambitious industry disrupting global expansion strategy, Riki is applying more than 2 decades of award winning international trade experience to scale online sellers around the world. Welcome to the Podcast.

[00:02:26]
Riki Hooker:
Ricki. Wow. I, that, that, that was, uh, that was, that was quite the intro. I, I, when I read that, I didn’t think it would be taking as long . Thank you all for having me on. That’s, it’s very cool to be here. And now I gather I’m, I gather I’m pretty close. We’re pretty close to 300 episodes. Yes. So we are, 

[00:02:41]
Arlen:
you’re, I don’t know if this one is gonna be the 300th one, or, well, if not, we we’re gonna have to have some kind of 

[00:02:48]
Riki Hooker:
Yeah. Sation graphics or effects to Yeah, if I’d have known, I’d have brought a cake or something to weather work.

[00:02:54]
Congratulations. 

[00:02:55]
Arlen:
Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Really appreciate that. It’s been quite a journey and a wonderful one as well then. So I’ve, I’ve learned a ton in these 300 episodes, and I’m sure you are gonna en. Even more is a kind of add to our whole, you know, repertoire of, of knowledge about e-commerce marketing.

[00:03:10]
And so, you know, basically today we’re gonna really be talking about an area we hadn’t really discussed too much before on the podcast, but that’s how you would expand into the European and UK markets. If you’re a current seller, maybe you’re just selling in the US or you’re selling in some other markets and you’re looking to expand in the European Union as well as the uk and you’re gonna tell us a little bit how a brand will be able to do that effectively.

[00:03:35]
And so, uh, before we do get into all of that, why don’t you tell us a little bit more about your background and you know, specifically how you got into doing what you’re doing. 

[00:03:43]
Riki Hooker:
Yeah, thanks. I mean, as you, you would, would, was shared there in the, in, in the bio piece. I’ve spent 25 years growing international businesses and I’ve done kind of the hard graph of building organizations both online and offline.

[00:03:59]
You know, initially pre-internet in manufacturing and distribution, B2B building. Dealer networks and distribution networks. And then as the internet took hold more online channels and marketplace. And I’ve done that kind of, as I say, the kind that hard work of, of, of tripping, stumbling, falling, getting back up, finding out the hard way, how to trade with people that aren’t, maybe not the same language, definitely not the same currency.

[00:04:26]
And you know, the nuances of, you know, of trading internationally, but also the exciting piece of, of beginning to. To kind of horizontally take the same products, take the same skews that you already know are successful, thing you’re already an expert at, and then apply them to a different set of people rather than trying to constantly churn ’em, trying to find something in the same place.

[00:04:50]
So yeah, it’s been, I’ve, I’ve, I’ve done it the hard way, pounding the pavements and build different businesses with various different degrees of success. Lately, more successful as I’ve grown wiser to what those pieces are. And then, 2020, I was asked to join global eCommerce experts to kind of apply that to other businesses and to, to kind of roll out some of that experience into this, this kind of expansion pathway that, that, that, that the business has got, which is this kind of, this kind of well trodden route of.

[00:05:19]
Put these things into practice and you’ll be able to go internationally. So it’s been really exciting. And the next stages of the journey are more countries, more global, you know, and a little bit more automation and the centralized portals and some other software pieces. So it’s a really exciting organization and, and as ever, e-commerce is a super exciting, you know, dream to be in.

[00:05:40]
So, yeah, I’m. Non e-commerce. And then over the last 20 years, I’ve kind of applied that international site into, into e-commerce. So that, that’s how I, that’s how I found myself here. Gotcha, gotcha. 

[00:05:49]
Arlen:
Well that’s awesome. And thank you for sharing that and, and giving us the details about, you know, how you got into, you know, what you’re doing today.

[00:05:55]
And I think this whole conversation and everything that you’ve kind of mentioned in your journey to where you are is. It’s really just timely because, you know, we’re right now at a stage where the, there, it’s, it’s, we’re really reaching a global economy, global world where, you know, it’s, your products and services can now be accessible by really virtually anyone just because of all of the, the advancements that have going on.

[00:06:21]
The internet speeds the ability to ship globally quite easily. All of these things have all come into play like never before. And you know, and, and also social media I think is also a key role in globalizing a company, globalizing cultures, and getting people from all over the world to experience. What it is to be like if, let’s say you’re in Europe or you’re in the uk, what are the cultural norms?

[00:06:46]
What are the types of products that people are, you know, familiar with and what are the things that they’re interested in? And so, you know, all of this is kind of coming into play. To, you know, really give, you know, really give customers the ability to, you know, to reach their world and, and, you know, and further serve their pro, you know, and shift their products and, and services across the world.

[00:07:06]
So it’s really a good time that we’re in right now. Very interesting. And so, and I mentioned at the top of the episode, of course, we’re talking about, you know, really how do you globalize, how do you access and get your products or your brand into the European markets, the uk I guess the first question I have is really, you know, before even looking to go that route, what are some initial.

[00:07:25]
Things that a brand just needs to have in place at a bare minimum before they even consider getting into these markets? 

[00:07:32]
Riki Hooker:
Yeah, I mean, there’s, there, there, there’s two routes that the a seller typically finds themselves selling globally. You know, they’ve either pushed out some content, YouTube, you know, social media tech.

[00:07:41]
If they’re particularly modern and they find themselves as an accidental exporter, you know, they find out that they come into a bunch of orders in their inbox to different countries, and so we do, we, we, we get a bit of that and that there’s always a bit of fun there in terms of how you fulfill that from, from, from where you are.

[00:07:57]
Maybe we touch on that a bit later, but Sure. For, for most sellers, they go, there’s a concert. Desire, you know, if they’re an Amazon seller, maybe a, maybe a global selling team or a rep tells ’em that the, the asset, you’re doing a fantastic job. You should, you should go international. Or maybe that, you know, it’s part of a structured plan.

[00:08:12]
And those are the ones which are typically the most interesting because an org, an organization or an e-commerce business has had a degree of success. You know, they, they’ve started to do some of the right things in their home country, doesn’t matter where that, the way that is. And they decide that, you know, maybe they want to expand, you know, and then go outwards, you know, from, from that point.

[00:08:32]
There’s really three things that we need to get a handle on. The first, per the first part, is an understanding of the scale of what you’re gonna be doing. You know, so are, are you want to be going to a country, a multitude of countries, a geographic region, you know, . So an idea of, of what you’re letting yourself in for, from a, from an understanding perspective.

[00:08:51]
So there’s a degree of research and, and, and, and, and getting the background under the pinning of what that is, the preparation part. Which comes in understanding will my products be right for another country? Are they, are they, you know, am I ready to be able to sell in those countries? Can I afford selling those places or is gonna need more stock, for instance?

[00:09:09]
And then finally, compliance. Those are the three pieces that you need to do right from the outset. The initial essential pieces. Yeah. Do I register for taxes? How register for taxes? Who’s gonna handle that for me? Mm-hmm. , am I going to be, is my product allowed to be sold in that particular country? So, you know, there’s certain things I was talking, there was.

[00:09:28]
Read this great article the other day about how something as simple as Gatorade in the, in the US people drinking it all the time. Mm-hmm. and there’s a particular one, I think it was a green, one of it, it’s the blue one. Anyway, there’s one of them, which is like totally illegal in the uk it’s not allowed.

[00:09:42]
It’s like, you know, it’s this taboo is Class A, you can’t have it cause it’s got some kind of color in it that’s been banned. Okay. Certain lu nuances like that, I mean, those things are unusual, but that comes in the preparation. Can I, how will I, in essence of the of, of, so, So those are three points, understanding, preparation, compliance.

[00:10:00]
Yeah. Once you’ve done those two, three pieces, you’re kind of good to go. Okay, great. 

[00:10:04]
Arlen:
Great. Yeah, I’m glad you simplified it and that, that makes sense. Cause you know, if of course if you can’t sell it in that particular country or region, then you know, you don’t need to move any further . So that, that really needs to be step one.

[00:10:16]
Yeah. Can you, can you sell it? And Yeah. It’s interesting that you mentioned there’s certain things, like you said, down to even. Like you said, the Gatorade example down to just the little, the color of that particular brand flavor of Gatorade just can’t be sold in the UK for, for whatever reason. Cause it was banned.

[00:10:31]
So, yeah. Yeah, it was very, very interesting. 

[00:10:33]
Riki Hooker:
So yeah, it’s, it’s unusual. Yeah, it’s unusual. Generally it’s, it’s okay. Yeah. Yeah, 

[00:10:37]
Arlen:
it did. Generally it is, So, but yeah, just kind of goes to the fact that you, you definitely want to do your due diligence and, and decide where you want to go. And it’s not just like, uh, you’re, you’re blindly, you know, you come up to a map with a blindfold on and you’re just throwing darts.

[00:10:52] It’s, you don’t want to go that route. You want to be able to, yeah. 

[00:10:54]
Riki Hooker:
You know, the cool thing here is that you can do that from home. You can, sorry. You can do that from your desk. You haven’t gotta move away from your desk, you haven’t gotta travel around. Yeah. To understand the mo the most of that, and even from a compliance perspective, you’re gonna spend a few hundred on understanding whether you need to be compliant, what kind of, you know, tax registrations you need. You know, we’re not talking about huge, huge amount of money at this stage. Mm-hmm. , you know, to get to, to understand what the scale of the opportunity is. 

[00:11:20]
Arlen:
Yeah. Yeah. True, true. Well, that’s really good to know.

[00:11:22]
Now, if I put myself in the shoes of an e-commerce brand, e-commerce seller, and I’m thinking about going down this route, so let’s say I’ve gone through that first step. I’ve done the due diligence, I’ve gone through, you know, Those three points, and I’ve figured out my area. I know it’s possible to sell.

[00:11:36]
I’ve covered up some of the I’ve, I’ve covered some of the major issues as far as taxes. I got a handle on that. I think the next question that comes to my mind is an e-commerce seller would then be shipping if I’m in the US and I have. A, you know, a product that has to be sold, that has to be actually shipped out and I need to ship it to, you know, the UK or any other European country.

[00:11:57]
How, how really does e-commerce brand figure out the best method for them? That’s gonna be as cost effective as possible, but yet it’s gonna be as timely as possible. For that end customer to get their product. Cause I, I think that’s really gonna be a big concern. Yeah. And 

[00:12:12]
Riki Hooker:
I think there’s one piece on the end there, Alan, which is desirability from a buyer’s perspective.

[00:12:16]
Yeah. That, you know, you can present something for sale and you could even make it, you know, make it available in a, in a ready timeframe. Mm-hmm. . But online buyers are very savvy. You know, around the world and they get a sense of, what am I doing here? What am I let myself in for? Where well, what I’m, I’m putting my credit card into for, for here.

[00:12:34]
Yeah. So I think that some of that is related around the shipping, but I think the cost effective shipping, there’s gonna be various ways you can go about doing it. Mm-hmm. , if you’re based in the US for instance, or you’re based in, in APEC and maybe in in, in Australia and you, you wanna start servicing orders overseas, you’re gonna need to.

[00:12:54]
Am I or am I not gonna trade in the local currency on my own currency? Right. And again, that might change the desirability of the buyer. Mm-hmm. , do I wanna buy this in a foreign currency? Do I wanna curry cover four x risk? Can I do that? Mm-hmm. , you, you are also gonna need to take consideration of the LA of a language.

[00:13:11]
I mean, you can come and sell in the uk. Mm-hmm. . Uh, because broadly speaking, broadly speaking, that there’s gonna be an understanding of the language from an, from a US perspective or an Australian per. Right, for instance, but quite how you’ll rank or your success in France or Germany or in a non, an English speaking country from a, from a u EU perspective, those things are certainly going to be, gonna take a look, make a lot of difference.

[00:13:33]
So, we’ll, we’ll perhaps touch on that, but those pieces later on because this is about cost effective shipping. You can either drop ship your goods from wherever you are into the country. Mm-hmm. , and then this, the buyer could take consideration of importation duties, taxes, that kind of stuff. Absolutely.

[00:13:47]
Or you can house your goods. In a region, and that’s where the most cost effective shipping comes from. The most successful e-commerce sellers in the uk in the EU will have some stock housed in a three PL in the uk and a three PL in, in the eu. Mm-hmm. And that will handle all the other European countries.

[00:14:07]
And those people will be able to offer, broadly speaking, next day delivery in the UK and next day delivery in the northeastern part for, for our, for our [3:00] PM Northeastern part of Europe. And yeah, maybe two to three days, maybe a little bit longer than that in some of the, Bar eight re reaching locations.

[00:14:22]
So the key thing here is considering that you’re probably gonna need to have some stocks, some of your own property mm-hmm. within, within the region. Now, if you’re an Amazon seller, you can stick that stuff into FBA in the various different, in those different countries. Hey, no problem. If you’re a, if you are a D two C seller and you’re selling directly off your own website, you’re gonna make need to make those arrangements yourself.

[00:14:41] Either way, you’ve gotta buy more stock. Mm-hmm. . So providing cost effective shipping. Shipping in bulk. for container loads. Right. But not sending things one by one. Right. Uh, and housing some stock within the region. Those are the two, the two biggest pieces. The for cost effective shipping, in essence.

[00:14:58]
Arlen:
Gotcha, Gotcha. That, that sounds great. Now as far as how housing your stock in that native country or region with these providers, these warehousing companies that provide the logistics for doing that and getting it shipped out. Is there an amount or a minimum that you have to commit to a minimum amount of inventory, a minimum amount of, you know, transactions before the, the, you know, you can go that route?

[00:15:21]
Riki Hooker: 
Yeah. I mean, there’s a, there’s a, there’s a whole ecosystem within the industry from a three PL and, okay. If you want to go for, yeah. You know, there were SuperDuper robotized, Amazon esque three pl right? Then, hey, you’re gonna need to be pumping thousands of orders a week. Right. There’s plenty of three pls.

[00:15:39]
I mean, our three pl both in the UK and the EU and in the Netherlands that we have in, uh, global becomes got our own three pls in, in both those places, typically we are servicing clients who have got, as a minimum, 50 to a hundred pallets of good. And as a maximum, more like a thousand pallets. I see. But in the, in the past, and there’s plenty of three pls that would go, one pallet, you know, one, one skew, one tote.

[00:16:05]
You know, all of those would then depend on, you know, your so, so, yes. There’s a, there’s an entire ecosystem of mm-hmm. Of three pls that will run from anything from, you know, from very little to, you know, entire warehouses full for some organizations are too much bigger than that. Yeah, yeah. Well that, 

[00:16:20]
Arlen:
that’s good to know because I think, uh, what a lot of e-commerce brands are gonna be thinking about when they’re, if they’re considering going this route, if they’re considering, you know, providing their stock in those native countries is gonna be, you know, it’s gonna be a new thing.

[00:16:33]
Companies. And so they may, they may have done their forecasting, their projections and their estimates, but you just never know. You know, you never know how it’s gonna go, how many sales you’re gonna get in that country. 

[00:16:45]
Riki Hooker:
So no, you’re definitely venturing into the unknown of some capacity. 

[00:16:48]
Arlen: 
Yeah, yeah, for sure.

[00:16:49]
So yeah, the ability to be able to get in there small and then scale up as needed, I think is, is gonna be key. So that’s good to know that, you know, there’s a lot of, you know, like you said, the three pls that are gonna be able to deal with that and handle a scale if you’re going from small to large. Now, you know, from a kind of a backend nuts and bolts perspective to making all of this happen, you know, do you, are there any tools or apps that you could recommend for a brand, you know, to assist just in the selling, you know, in the UK or the European Union?

[00:17:19]
Riki Hooker:
Yeah, I  mean, some online shopping stores, so online shopping capacities are, are, are much better for international than others. I mean, a Shopify, Shopify marketplace and Shopify plus a very. For global selling, for instance, Shopify marketplace is probably that good middle ground between the, or single or dancing one.

[00:17:36]
And for, for a new, to a new to export business mm-hmm. , it’s, so certainly from those side of things, you’re gonna need, from an apps and tools perspective, you’re gonna need to be able to treat feas comfortably. You’re gonna need to be able to trade in the, in the currency that you are selling in to give credibility to your org, to, to, to your capacity.

[00:17:56]
So triple five plus will get that set up. So you’re gonna be selling in pound sterling in the uk and broadly you’re gonna be selling. Euros in the u in, in, in, in, in the European Union. Mm-hmm. . So for one way or another, you’ve gotta get that stuff out. You’ve gotta get those U tho those tho that that currency back into your native currency.

[00:18:10]
Yeah. Back into dollars. And to be able to pay your bills and, and pay away. So the first thing that you’re definitely gonna need is, is pay or weld, pay some kind of. International currency trading facility that will very easily exchange funds from one currency to another. Accept funds from those e-commerce suppliers allow you to pay to pay bills for their pay, your tax bills, and things like that.

[00:18:35]
Secondly, you’re gonna need to understand the scale of the opportunity and who you are, what you know, who, what your market and your competitors are overseas. So, You’re gonna need probably something like Helium 10 as a good starting point. Mm-hmm. relatively inexpensive compared to some of those things.

[00:18:52]
Not really agency level. So as something like Helium 10 is a really good way of understanding how congested are these skews overseas. You know, you might find your opportunity overseas is bigger than at home because Right. There’s less congestion on those skews, on mark, on marketplaces. You might find that you, you, you know, so, so some way of being able to analyze what those pieces look like.

[00:19:11]
Mm-hmm. and then it’s highly likely that even for a D two. You’re gonna need to go cross marketplace, right? So you’re gonna need something to ex to, to transfer your listings from what you’ve got at home into, into, from an international perspective. So something like expand Lee is a really good SaaS option for moving your listings internationally and moving them between marketplaces.

[00:19:35]
Even if you’re selling on, say, eBay in the us, you’ll still need to convert your listings to be able to sell on eBay in the uk. Relatively quick and simple, but nonetheless, you’ll still need to make those, tho those conversions. So those are think the really are, are really good ways of, of doing that. And then you’re gonna need to consider, you know, listing languages.

[00:19:53]
You’re gonna need to consider making sure you register for taxes. Yeah. Which are all part of the kind of website checkout piece. Yeah. If you’re selling on a marketplace, they’ll give you a hand with that. But if you’re doing it yourself, D to C, then some of these pieces that you know, you, you, you’re gonna need to do yourself, but you’ll have understood where to do those because we’ve already, you’re already well-researched and prepared.

[00:20:13]
So, um, getting those pieces over the line are important. So I’d say those are the, probably the three go-to tools that will help you to start to get international, not just from a UK and EU perspective, but internationally in general. 

[00:20:26]
Arlen:
Gotcha, Gotcha. Yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s good to know. And yeah, those are some great tools.

[00:20:29]
One of the things that I was also thinking about, How important, you mentioned a lot of just kind of key things when it comes to currency, when it comes to the taxes, regulations, you know, the fulfillment aspect. Those are all key critical things. Another thing that, you know, maybe a lot of brands may not have thought about or considered is, Spec specifically, if you’re dealing with some European con outside of the UK that aren’t natively English speaking or they, they’re speaking other languages, how important is that that to consider when you’re talking about handling these customers after the fact?

[00:21:03]
As far as from a customer supports, You know, standpoint. And is the language barrier a big concern? Or, you know, these days, I know with the, the plethora of translation apps and AI technologies, is that really a, a major factor?

[00:21:16]
Riki Hooker: 
Yeah. I mean, in, in, in, in some countries it’s no issue. Okay. You know, you could, you could start to, you could start to export and just say, well, I’m gonna deal with English speaking countries first.

[00:21:28]
Mm-hmm. . And if you were in the States, that would give you quite a lot of options. Yeah. If you are really doing a, you know, a, a, a structured plan to expand, then the thing to understand is that these cultural differences, they, they extend to optimization, to keywords, to, to ads, to, you know, all of those things.

[00:21:48]
Right. Uh, are original. Yeah. And there’s some countries, you know, there’s an enormous, enormous e-commerce opportunity in France and in Germany. Okay. Really, to make those work, you’re gonna need to translate. Okay. Now, up until November last year, the translation industry was, was somewhat, it knew where it stood.

[00:22:06]
If you wanted to do a quick translation, you know, Google was getting better and better. Yeah. If you wanted to do something more optimized, you would use native tongue translation. You know, somebody who read it and knew how to optimize it in that country. Mm-hmm. come end November last year when Chap G B T came on the scene.

[00:22:22]
Yeah. You know, this is, this is seriously disrupted because now you know, who knows this is, this AI is this AI technology is doubling every month. You know, so you know quite well that, where that leaves us in terms of optimizing an international. Well, you know, we e everyone’s minds are blown, including the people who are developing that stuff, , right?

[00:22:42]
So that, that, that’s like, that, that, that area of the industry is slightly changed now, but certainly an understanding that you, you know, you’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto. You’re gonna have to come to terms with the fact that if you wanna sell in, in Europe, you, you, you need to present your goods compliant to be able to sell it in Europe and in a language someone’s gonna underst.

[00:23:02]
Else, they’re just not gonna be feel comfortable buying it. Yeah. So you can tickle around the edges to begin with. Selling in dollars, maybe selling in pounds, but you know, just tickle around the edges. Drop shipping in from the US or from where you are. Mm-hmm. . But to do it properly, you are gonna need to attack some of those things in due course.

[00:23:19]
Arlen:
Yeah. Yeah. That, that, that’s really true. And I’m glad you said that. It, it’s like initially may not be necessarily a big concern when you’re just getting, getting your feet wet, but as you’re getting more into it, you’re selling more and more if you’re really looking to expand. Yeah, I, I see you, you, you really have to, you know, regionalize everything.

[00:23:38]
Think about the translation and, and, and kind of grow the whole, the whole nine for sure. Yeah, that totally makes sense. Now, Ricky, as we get ready to wrap things up, I wanted to see if you could provide us with any examples of some e-commerce brands that, you know, you guys have either dealt with as a company or that you’re just familiar with in generally, generally, that have been successful selling, expanding to the UK and the European markets, and what were some of their keys to success?

[00:24:01]
Riki Hooker:
Yeah, and this follows on really nicely from the, from the, from the last piece here because. Let’s take the UK and the EU in terms of how should I go about, you know, attacking this? Do I just dabble around the edges? Do the English making ones? Yep. We are talking about half a billion web savvy internet buying, um, knowledgeable people broadly, all of them.

[00:24:23]
Broadly, very high integration with online purchasing, especially since Covid. Yep. And so just act, just, just to give you there the scale of the opportunity. You know, there’s as many people here that we are talking about as in the United States, if that’s where you’re starting out. Yeah. There’s an extraordinarily large opportunity and some, some of the organizations, which I’ll tell you about in a minute, have gone at this by saying, well, look, there’s double the amount of people here.

[00:24:48]
We should be able to double our businesses cause it’s feasible that we can double our business. And the answer to that is absolutely you can double your business. Wow. See that? That gives you an indication of the scale of the opportunity here. Do I, do I kind of organize the bite to, to, to develop some new products?

[00:25:02]
Should I go and see if I can, I can take, you know, 10 cents off my cost price. We’re talking about doubling the opportunity. Mm-hmm. and we’ve worked with, with some organizations. Give you some examples, some examples of exploding kittens, the card game, exponential growth in, in Europe. What do they do? They have to translate all of their cards to each individual.

[00:25:22]
These, these, these, these, I dunno if you’ve played the crazy card game as that. They, the exp exploding kittens, but this was a, this is us, US business. Mm-hmm. , we assisted them with their UK and EU launch. They really went at it. They got the, they got the, all the products compliant, all their skews and barcodes organized, they translated the listings, the, the instruction manuals, the safety pieces, the, you know, the, the safety device, the logos, and the bits and pieces like that got themselves well sorted.

[00:25:47]
And they literally doubled the capacity of their North American operation. Wow. Another one that you might, they might know Manscaped again, their, their, they, their European growth exceeded their US growth. Okay. And one more example that gives with, with, with some, some, some, some rationale there. Another, another organization called Sun Ninja that make these really cool spandex.

[00:26:10]
Some tents that you can, you put in a backpack and eat on the beach. It’s a really cool brand. Yeah. And what they understood was it’s always summer somewhere, , you know? Yeah. And, and you know, we’ve got this really seasonal organ season seasonal business here where we are kind of feast and famine and started, started the process of saying, well, hold on a second.

[00:26:30]
It’s really sunny in Australia. Mm-hmm. , it’s, you know, with the shoulders of the season are longer in certain places, plus certain places in Europe. Mm-hmm. , where can we, where can we expand out from that part? But all. These organizations are, have really paid attention to regional requirements. They’ve translated carefully and hey, look, they’ve had the capital to do that as well.

[00:26:51]
Mm-hmm. and some of some people listening here will sort of think, well, hey, I can’t afford to do it like that. Yeah. But just to give an example of the opportunity they’ve optimized regionally, you know, they’ve got keywords, they’ve got ad campaigns of things going regionally. Mm-hmm. . Yeah, and as I say, they’ve, they, they’ve taken advantage of different seasonality, different offers in marketplaces.

[00:27:11]
I mean, take Amazon example, they might do a prime day or certain, you know, skew type incentive deals and offers banner type offers in the us Well, they’ll be different somewhere else. , they’re not the same in the uk. They won’t be doing those campaigns in, in, in, you know, in, in the same way internationally.

[00:27:29]
They’ll be organized regionally. Mm-hmm. , uh, so, and there’s different marketplaces which are less congested. So those organizations are really good examples of ones that have really done a good job of, of, of, of getting prepared, understanding the original differences. Mm-hmm. and then deploying to, uh, just a huge, huge success.

[00:27:47]
So yeah, there’s good examples from that side of. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:27:50]
Arlen:
Thank you for sharing those. Those were some awesome examples. I was very familiar with at least landscape exploding kittens, which was, were huge. And I didn’t realize that, you know, they, you know, had such a, an explosive growth , nobody pun intended, in the uk, in the European markets, but I, I could see, I could see why mean, they seemed like they really definitely did their due diligence.

[00:28:10]
And, and, and you, when you put everything into perspective, as you mentioned, you can, you can really just, When you think about the amount of sales, the amount of people you know, in these regions that you can think about really, you know, it’s incredible how you could possibly double your, double your sales, double your growth.

[00:28:27]
And, you know, that’s, you know, a very enticing proposition to I think any of the e-commerce brands that are listening that haven’t really even thought about this. So, yeah, I, I think there’s really no better time than. To try to test the waters and ex and you know, see, see what you can do if you’re looking to really branch out into these different markets.

[00:28:46]
Well, Ricky, this has been an awesome conversation. I’ve definitely learned a lot myself. I know our listeners have as well, you know, and then as we’ve said, this is definitely a lot of potential and it’s really, I’m gonna just gonna continue to grow as the whole world. Globalizing and people are more and more familiar with what’s going on in the, in, in, in the, in that people have in other, uh, countries and other, and in the products that are native to those countries.

[00:29:10]
And, and so I, yeah. Yeah, I think this is really just gonna just get bigger and bigger. But you know, lastly, before we do let you go, I always like to close things out and switch gears just so our audience. Get to know you a little bit better. So if you don’t mind sharing one closing fun fact about yourself that you think we’d be interested to know.

[00:29:23]
Riki Hooker: 
Well, you know, as a few weeks ago I was, I was chatting with a client and I was talking through very similar questions that, you know, in, in e-commerce seller, and I explained that there were some, there were some, you know, specific. Products that would be, you know, less successful, but the scale of the opportunity for you, for your business in, in, in the UK and the EU was absolutely enormous.

[00:29:44]
But I failed to ask that particular client what it was that they, that they sold. Okay. And it wasn’t as, as they kind of rolled into the fact that they built custom gun racks for pickup trucks. Okay, gotcha. And I had to kind of stop the conversation to say, well, unfortunately, there are some things in the states which are very American.

[00:30:02]
There might be spurs for your boots, stars, right. Flags and. The other one’s probably gonna be a gun rack for your pickup truck. So, uh, we, but we did, we had a good laugh over the, over the, the irony of of, of what, of wanting to expand and, and hey, we’re only talking there about the UK and the years. Places have plenty of places around the world that this particular sellers products were, were very valid to sell.

[00:30:25]
We’re talking about the European market, but you don’t get too many like that, if I’m honest, to make actually money. . 

[00:30:30]
Arlen:
Right. I hear you. 

[00:30:39]
Riki Hooker: 
Yeah, that, that’s interesting. I can definitely see how a product like that will, you know, definitely . We have some challenges trying to sell that in the, in the UK.

[00:30:40]
Arlen:
European countries for sure.

[00:30:42]
But you know, this is not every product is like that. There’s definitely a, you know, a few. Luckily not. Luckily not, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Otherwise, You know, I don’t think your, your organization and, and agencies like yours would, would find too much work. But luckily most products translate to different regions pretty, pretty easily, so yeah.

[00:30:58]
Sure. Yeah. Good, good to know. Well, well, Ricky, thank you for sharing that. I appreciate, you know, sharing that fun fact. Lastly, before we do let you go, if you don’t mind letting our listeners and our viewers know the best way to reach you, if they have any further questions about, you know, expanding into the UK and European Union markets.

[00:31:14]
Riki Hooker:
Yeah, yeah, sure. Uh, so Global, global e-Commerce. Does all of the things that we’ve talked about today. Okay? It does all of the preparation, it does all the compliance, it does all of those aspects. It’s got three pls to put your stock in, okay? It gives you, it gives us a one stop shop to grow your business internationally.

[00:31:30]
So if you have any questions regarding what that looks like, the easiest way to just use your favorite browser to go to, to search for global e-commerce experts, we should come to the top and you’ll find easy ways to get in touch with the team to give you advice on, you know, the scope of the opportunity and indeed how to do it.

[00:31:46]
We’ve, we’ve. Over 2000 e-commerce brands into the region in the last seven or eight years. And, and we’re ready to help. 

[00:31:53]
Arlen:
Okay. Well that’s awesome. Well, that’s good to know that uh, we’ve got companies like you that can assist brands here in the US to, to really go through this process so you don’t have to do it alone and, you know, do a guessing game.

[00:32:04]
Cause I could imagine over those 2000 businesses that you guys have assisted, there was a lot of lessons learned that you. Learned that can apply, that you can apply and, and, and help, you know, new brands that are coming to you, prevent them from making the same kind of mistakes. So good to know. Yeah. And thank you for sharing that.

[00:32:19]
We’ll have the link to, to you guys website in the show notes, but, uh, yeah. La lastly, thank you for joining us today. Uh, Ricky, I’ve learned a lot, as I said. And we appreciate you coming on to the e-Commerce Marketing Podcast on It’s an absolute honor.

[00:32:29]
Riki Hooker:
Thanks for having me. Thank you. Thank you for listening to the e-Commerce Marketing Podcast.

Podcast Guest Info

Riki Hooker
General Manager of Global E-commerce Experts