How can you maximize e-commerce growth in emerging markets?

1 Understand the local context

Before entering an emerging market, you should do your homework and research the cultural, economic, legal, and logistical factors that affect your target customers and competitors. This includes considering the preferred payment methods and delivery options, the reliability of internet and mobile connectivity, local regulations and taxes for e-commerce, how customers search for and trust online products and services, as well as the social and environmental issues that matter to them. By understanding the local context, you can then adjust your value proposition, marketing strategy, and operations to meet the specific needs and expectations of your audience.

2 Optimize your website and mobile app

Your website and mobile app are your main touchpoints with customers, so you need to ensure they are fast, user-friendly, and secure. To optimize your online presence, you should use a responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes and devices, compress images and videos to reduce loading time and bandwidth consumption, implement local languages and currencies to improve customer experience and conversion, use SSL certificates and trusted payment gateways for data protection and privacy, and test your website/app on various browsers/platforms to identify/fix issues. By optimizing your website/mobile app, you can enhance performance, credibility, and customer satisfaction.

3 Leverage social media and influencers

Social media and influencers are powerful tools to reach and engage potential customers in emerging markets. They can help you increase brand awareness, build trust and loyalty, generate word-of-mouth and referrals, drive traffic and sales, and collect feedback and insights. To leverage these tools effectively, you need to choose the right platforms and channels that suit your niche and goals, create and share valuable content that educates, entertains, or inspires your audience, collaborate with influencers who have a strong connection with your target market, interact with your followers and customers, and monitor and measure your results. By leveraging social media and influencers, you can boost your e-commerce growth in emerging markets.

4 Offer flexible and convenient options

Customers in emerging markets value flexibility and convenience when it comes to e-commerce, desiring more choices and control over their online shopping experience. To meet these needs, you can provide multiple payment methods, such as cash on delivery, mobile wallets, or local cards. Additionally, you can offer free or low-cost shipping and returns with tracking and notifications. Allowing customers to customize their orders with size, color, or quantity options is another great way to increase satisfaction. Furthermore, enabling customers to pick up or drop off their orders at convenient locations like local stores or kiosks is a great way to provide convenience. Lastly, creating loyalty programs and rewards that incentivize repeat purchases and referrals is a great way to increase customer retention. By offering these flexible and convenient options, you can increase customer satisfaction and retention.

5 Partner with local players

Partnering with local players can help you overcome some of the challenges and risks of operating in emerging markets. They can provide you with access to local networks and resources, expertise and knowledge of the market and culture, support and guidance on legal and regulatory matters, cost savings and efficiency gains, and competitive advantage and differentiation. Examples of local players that you can partner with include e-commerce platforms and marketplaces, suppliers and distributors, media and agencies, and NGOs and social enterprises. These partnerships can help you reach a wider audience, leverage infrastructure and reputation, source and deliver products faster and cheaper, create marketing campaigns, align e-commerce with social goals, and ultimately enhance your e-commerce growth in emerging markets.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?