How do you know if there’s an opportunity for your online business overseas? Here are some ways to find out.
Japan has been one of the leading markets on the internet from the beginning of the World Wide Web. Now that Asia has the largest online market by the number of internet users, Asian markets are attracting Western businesses more than ever.
However, this unfortunately seems to be a one-way street with many Asian businesses waiting for global customers to come to them. If 42 percent of internet users reside in Asia, this means more than a half of the users are outside Asia. The US market alone is massive and still the top ecommerce market. Where should Asian businesses look to grow? Should we only target other countries within Asia, where Western businesses are most active? While it does sound reasonable, the big question is "should you?"
How do you determine if there's an opportunity for business abroad? Just because your business is doing well on the internet in your market doesn't necessarily mean that there would always be similar demand overseas. Unlike in the old days where data was lacking, in today's highly-measured, digital economy there are treasure troves of information anyone can obtain fairly easily to measure the business potential in particular markets without even leaving the office:
Check the competition
Search online using some of your target keywords to see what businesses related to yours are operating in each market. I'd start with keywords in English, as it's the most popular language on the internet right now. With this simple step, you will also get an idea of how many PPC advertisers are there for that keyword, too. Search directories are another good place to check the market. Look for your business category to see who's there.
Assess existing interest from abroad
Check your access log files to see which keywords people currently use to find your site on search engines, and where they are currently located (access point). If you have an analytics tool, you can get more detailed information. For example, if the report shows that you already have a good number of people visiting your site from the US, it would be your first target market outside your country. Current interest from a specific country is a key indicator there is even more potential in that market.
Determine the market size
Use keyword tools such as the Google AdWords Keyword Tool to check the search volume in a specific market. This is one of the best data sources to understand the business opportunity in each market. It also gives you a good idea of the market trends, preferences and interests of the new market.
For example, you sell "luxury pet supplies" for pampered pets and want to target the US market. If the keyword tool shows there's a great demand for the search phrase "pet supplies", but it also shows most searches are about "pet supply wholesale" and "cheap pet supply", your market may not be as big as it first seemed, since people prefer discounted products rather than luxury items.
Evaluate the market needs and trends
Evaluate social media sites for the conversations around your business-related categories. You can do this by using on-site search offered by sites such as Facebook. People tend to talk casually on SNS sites, and you are likely to find more honest and close to real-time feedback from actual consumers. Look for any affinity groups and communities within the sites, and be sure to read the threads to see what people are talking about related to your products and services.
Twitter is another good place to check the conversations. When you search tweets using keywords, product names, etc. it gives you a list of current conversations that include that word or phrase. On Twitter, you can also check for a certain "#" (hashtag) to follow the conversations on a specific topic such as #SCUBA (Twitter users use # to group tweets around a specific topic or community.)
One of the beauties of the internet is that the opportunities are out there for just about everyone, no matter the size of the company or their budget. While going global is no easy task, there could be significant rewards on the other side of the tunnel, if you make an educated business decision based on the right data. I hope the above recommendations give you the nudge you needed to participate in the new global economy. Let's go global!
Motoko Hunt is a Japanese search marketing strategist and founder of AJPR.