International Merchant Accounts for Global Ecommerce
The Asia-Pacific region represents tremendous opportunities for merchants that want to capture sales from international customers. Forrester Research predicts that five Asia-Pacific markets will overtake ecommerce in the West within the next four years.
Combined ecommerce sales from five countries — China, South Korea, Japan, Australia, and India — will soon surpass combined sales from the US and Europe. Sales from the five countries will experience a compound annual growth rate of 16.61%, soaring from $398 billion in 2013 to $858 billion by 2018.
Easy Entry to Australia
The Australian ecommerce market will grow 10% a year through 2018. Australia is the easiest country for US merchants to enter due to shared language and similar cultures.
The Australian government allows up to $1000 in purchases made from foreign merchants to enter the country duty free, a big incentive for Aussies shopping online.
Chinese Opportunities with China Union Pay
China ecommerce sales will increase from $294 billion in 2013 to $672 billion by 2018.
Merchants marketing to China must accept China Union Pay cards in order to maximize sales from buyers. However, merchants need to be absolutely sure that the payment platform used for China Union Pay actually works.
Not all China Union Pay platforms perform as promised. Some etailers have experienced problems with “time-outs” occurring prior to a sale being complete.
PaynetSecure has a proven China Union Pay platform that eliminates the time-out issue. As a result, merchants will make more sales and customer frustration at checkout will be eliminated.
Japan / South Korea Tech Savvy Online buyers
Both Japan and South Korea will have annual ecommerce growth rates of 10% through 2018. These countries require a special understanding of the buying patterns of shoppers.
With over 100 million Internet users and 75 million online shoppers Japan boasts a well-educated and tech savvy population. According to ATKearney merchants that want to maximize success in Japan need to focus on top quality websites and fast delivery services.
South Korea has young, sophisticated buyers who are comfortable buying online. Many young buyers are especially attracted to western fashion styles, which are considered to be status symbols.
In both countries, tablets and mobile phones are hugely popular. Present your best to these sophisticated buyers.
India Fast Growth Yet Challenging Market
Although India ecommerce growth rates will surpass 50% a year through 2018, it is one of the most challenging markets to enter. Government restrictions on foreign investment in e-commerce have kept many eretailers out of the market. Still, the Indian market offers some good opportunities for merchants selling computers and consumer electronics.
Conclusion
An international merchant account lets you take advantage the global ecommerce market place. Millions of buyers world-wide are comfortable buying from companies, regardless of location.
Accepting card payments is important, of course. Yet, also consider adding local payment options to get sales from customers that don’t have cards. Or simply prefer to pay you with an alternative payment method.
PaynetSecure offers international merchant accounts for businesses interested in expanding into lucrative international markets. The company offers payments processing and settlements in 188 currencies and 44 languages world-wide.
Are you interested in increasing orders from the rapidly growing global ecommerce market?
Contact info@paynetsecure.net today.