E-Export has been talked about for years. It has grown 3 times in 3 years and reached a volume of 1 billion dollars, but it is not even 1% of Turkey’s total export volume. It is clear that there is still a long way to go. We know the potential and the challenges. MegaMerchant was conceived as an answer to these challenges and implemented by an experienced team in this field.
We have worked with thousands of brands and SMEs for years and witnessed their digital transformation. Whether it’s a big brand or an SME, there are two important questions before a decision maker starts this business:
- Is this business profitable?
- Where and how to start?
Let’s unpack this a little more.
What needs to be done to establish a sustainable model?
1- The right product – the right market – the right platform.
Putting thousands of products up for sale on dozens of platforms largely guarantees failure. To find the right match, you must first use the in-platform analysis tools effectively. Of course, for this, you have to be a seller. Isn’t this a contradiction? 🙂 Platforms such as Amazon, AliExpress, Allegro, Etsy provide very detailed data to sellers for free, and as your sales increase, different screens are opened. It’s a bit like a game. Of course, it is possible to access some data by subscribing to tools such as Helium10, JungleScout, but these tools are only for those who do not know what to sell more. Well, let’s say you have access to or purchased these tools. Do you have experienced employees who will use them? Let’s say there is. Can you hold them?
We use all these tools every day, every moment. So much so that we work with platforms for the development of these tools.
2- Legal and financial infrastructure compatible with the regulatory infrastructure of the country to be sold.
The expectations of the platforms in this regard are increasing day by day. E-commerce companies, which want to provide better quality service in order to retain their customers they have gained by investing, have started to require requirements such as a company, bank account, office address, customer service in the relevant country. Although some of these are mandatory today, it is inevitable that all of them will be mandatory in the near future. Likewise, countries introduce new concepts into the lives of sellers. Just 2 years ago, there was neither EPR nor IOSS.
Is your company ready to install them? We are ready from today.
3- Overseas fulfillment is a must.
It is nice to receive an order, but for a sustainable business, you should ship that order the next day at the latest and deliver it to the customer in 2 days at the latest. For this, supply should be well planned, and it should work end-to-end integrated with logistics and sales, that is, without human contact. This is only possible with the use of many tools and systems together. For example, your Fulfillment software should be able to automatically pick up the order from Allegro, ship it from the German warehouse to the customer, feed the current stock information to the integrator or other platforms, and update the salable stock everywhere.
Using its increasing e-export volume and experience, Megamerchant made the best possible fulfillment and delivery agreements in Turkey and abroad, and connected them with integrations. In this way, you do not have to sell only products that are light in weight and heavy in price.
4- Not the translation of the existing; local, rich content.
If someone says that you can sell the same product you sell in Turkey, with the same image, only by translating the title and content, on foreign platforms, get away immediately.
Regardless, every product has a story. Unless you understand this in a written and visual way, you cannot increase your conversion rates and organic traffic, optimize your advertising costs, and reach profitability.
We work with local content producers every day, ponder visual, video and graphic design, talk to producers and ask them to research product features that even they don’t know.
Most of the time, your brand is known in Turkey or when a potential customer visits your website or calls you, they can get an idea of the quality of your products and services. This advantage disappears abroad. You have to stand out among dozens of brands that want to sell similar products at a similar price.
Does your category manager know your products well enough? Will he be able to tell this to the Americans, the British, the Germans, the Russians, the Poles? We are telling. Let’s look at the examples together.
5- And profitability…
The expression “I sell profitably for 200 liras in Turkey (December 2022 – 10 Euros), I can sell more profitable for 50 Euros in Europe” may be valid for a very special, limited number of products, but if you are not one of those lucky few sellers or manufacturers, our recommendation always the same: Make your pricing based on your profitability in Turkey, set an investment amount to expand your business abroad and aim to get it back in the long run. While doing this, focus on reaching more customers, increasing your brand value and the number of customers.
The most important way to get your investment back and be sustainable is through the continuous reduction of your unit costs. As your sales numbers increase, your unit logistics and marketing expenses should decrease. This can only be achieved by volume, consolidation, and merging.
That’s exactly what MegaMerchant was founded for.
