International Ecommerce Basics 2024 PDF

KEY ASPECTS OF INTERNATIONAL ECOMMERCE BASIC GUIDE INDEX ECOMMERCE STRATEGY................................................................................................. 2 OBJECTIVE..................................................................................................................... 2 GENERAL INFO ABOUT INTERNATIONAL ECOMMERCE....................................... 2 CROSS-BORDER VS DOMESTIC ECOMMERCE.......................................................... 2 MAIN DIFFERENCES BETWEEN B2B AND B2C STRATEGIES................................. 4 DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS: INTERNATIONAL ONLINE SHOP VS MARKETPLACES............................................................................................................ 5 CONFLICT WITH MY PHYSICAL DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL? POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS.................................................................................................................... 7 INTERNAL ANALYSIS OF THE COMPANY.................................................................. 8 LEVEL OF NECESSARY INVESTMENT: CRITICAL ASPECTS TO BE CONSIDERED 9 FIRST STRATEGIC DECISIONS REGARDING ECOMMERCE.................................. 10 RESEARCH – COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE............................................................. 11 COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE TOOLS.................................................................... 11 A FIRST INTERNAL ANALYSIS................................................................................... 12 MARKET AND PRODUCT RESEARCH....................................................................... 12 TOOLS TO ANALYZE MY COMPETITORS.................................................................. 17 COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS TOOLS FOR MARKETPLACES....................................... 19 MAIN MARKETPLACES AND TOOLS FOR B2B STRATEGIES.................................... 21 INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................... 21 ALIBABA.COM: B2B MARKET LEADER.................................................................... 23 OTHER B2B MARKETPLACES.................................................................................... 25 LINKEDIN FOR B2B STRATEGIES............................................................................. 27 MAIN MARKETPLACES FOR B2C STRATEGIES.......................................................... 28 INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................... 28 AMAZON....................................................................................................................... 28 OTHER B2C MARKETPLACES.................................................................................... 31 B2C VERTICAL MARKETPLACES............................................................................... 35 CRITICAL AREAS OF A B2C CHANNEL......................................................................... 35 ECOMMERCE SOLUTIONS......................................................................................... 36 DIGITAL MARKETING................................................................................................. 37 MAIN LOGISTICS STRATEGIES................................................................................. 42 LEGAL AND FISCAL ASPECTS.................................................................................... 43 PAYMENT METHODS.................................................................................................. 44 CUSTOMER SERVICE.................................................................................................. 45 ECOMMERCE STRATEGY OBJECTIVE This guide aims to provide students with the guidelines of a strategic plan for interna6onaliza6on through electronic commerce. Speciﬁcally, if you intend to understand the dimension and importance of electronic commerce in a Post COVID-19 scenario and acquire the necessary knowledge about current Internet business models and their applica6on in tradi6onal or newly created companies. It is also intended to review the success factors for the deﬁni6on of a correct online sales strategy, as well as its integra6on with the interna6onaliza6on strategy. Examples of decisions that companies must make before entering into opera6onal aspects, such as technology, marke6ng plan, logis6cs, etc. will be analyzed. GENERAL INFO ABOUT INTERNATIONAL ECOMMERCE Currently Internet sales are a booming market that does not stop developing and evolving. We tend more and more to a global market, in which the user looks for what he wants na6onally or globally, and who buys where he wants, for the reason (price, comfort, range of oﬀer) that he decides most importantly. The percentage of retail sales made online has grown steadily, growing from just over 10% in 2014 to around 25% in 2022. The Covid-19 pandemic has further accentuated the growth trend of e-commerce. The lockdown and other measures taken in response to the Covid-19 pandemic have led consumers to increase e-commerce purchases and use of social media. These new trends have led to a sudden increase in business-to-consumer commerce and an increase in business-to-business e-commerce. CROSS-BORDER VS DOMESTIC ECOMMERCE Developing an online sales channel allows access to more poten6al customers thanks to greater geographic coverage. Customers will be able to buy your products without leaving home regardless of where they reside, so expanding your radius of ac6on to other na6onal provinces or selling abroad is no longer a barrier. The opportunity for electronic commerce is indeed interna6onal, especially since the online consumer is extremely easy to buy products on foreign websites. According to a Nielsen study, 57% of online shoppers make purchases on foreign websites and in Europe this ﬁgure rises to 63.4%. Fuente: Nielsen In the speciﬁc case of electronic commerce, the interna6onaliza6on of intangible products or services can be found whereby local culture and habits can pose insurmountable barriers, as in the case of the use of unknown or unfriendly interfaces for local users. In the case of consumer goods, the barriers are more focused on logis6cs, marke6ng and incompa6bility problems of the means of payment, in the case of direct sales to the end user / consumer. Cross-border trade grows more than na6onal trade, as we can see in the following graph: Global transac,on value of cross-border B2C e-commerce (billions of dollars) In summary, the key points for online interna6onaliza6on are: § Languages: online product informa6on must be correctly translated for target markets, such as product instruc6ons and labels. Customer service also requires the local language needs of the des6na6on countries. It may also be advisable to create speciﬁc Internet domains in each country (for example:.pt,.fr,.es,.it…). § § § Legal: In addi6on to interna6onal standards, for example, Incoterms and rules of the European Union, we have to study the legal implica6ons, import rules, product cer6ﬁca6ons, etc., of each des6na6on country. Do not forget tax issues, such as crossborder VAT. Logis,cs: Interna6onal logis6cs costs can make online sales unfeasible, especially for lower priced products. For more distant markets, the possibility of storing stocks in des6na6on markets should be analyzed. In sales to the ﬁnal consumer (B2C) it is necessary to deliver a product in a foreign country and a`end to possible returns Payments: In addi6on to the most common payment methods worldwide (Visa, Paypal, Apple Pay, Google, Pay.), there are also local methods that are widely used, for example in the Chinese market. MAIN DIFFERENCES BETWEEN B2B AND B2C STRATEGIES B2C commerce, being the customer the ﬁnal consumer, is characterized by making individual sales, of lower value, but much more frequently. For its part, B2B ecommerce, being the customer a company, is a business process, for purchases of greater volume and value, which starts online and most of the ,me remains oﬄine, that is, it is a process of capturing poten,al customers, leads. B2C Customers B2B Customers Only one contact Look for a product Quick purchase Fixed prices Promotional offer Direct payments Unitary delivery Unique visits Individual purchases Various contacts Look for a provider Decision making process Negotiated prices Price conditions Deferred payment Bulk purchases Long-term relationship Professional purchase Digital marke6ng techniques also diﬀer depending on the type of business. B2C Emotive comercial content SEO and SEM Google Shopping and Google Maps Instagram, Tik Tok B2B Rational / technical content More SEO Sectorial directories Linkedin Many manufacturers, whose oﬄine business is en6rely B2B, aim to create a B2C online business, to avoid intermediaries and retain all the commercial margin. However, it is essen6al to know all the implica6ons and diﬃcul6es that a B2C online business entails, as we will see later in this guide. DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS: ONLINE SHOP VS MARKETPLACES Marketplaces or electronic markets are usually directories of providers specialized in businessto-business (business-to-business or B2B), business-to-consumer (business-to-consumer or B2C) or between companies and Public Administra6ons (business-to -government or B2G). They can allow transac6ons on their plaform or simply serve as a mee6ng point between sellers and buyers in a certain market. One of its main advantages is to facilitate the interna,onaliza,on of our company without great investment needs, by allowing us to test new markets to see how our product works without the expense of crea6ng a speciﬁc online sales channel and / or a customer acquisi6on campaign, or use them as an addi6onal or alterna6ve channel for our sales outside the country, without involving a direct conﬂict with the tradi6onal channel. Among its drawbacks we must highlight that our products will be listed with those of our compe66on, so it will be cri6cal to highlight our product or services to close an agreement or get a sale. Another drawback will be the need to share the margin with the marketplace, while in a proprietary online store the manufacturer or brand owner retains the en6re sales margin. And why would it be interes6ng for a merchant to put his products or services up for sale in a marketplace when he can sell them himself? Its advantages as an alterna6ve sales channel are: § § § Access to a large number of potential buyers and increase the visibility of the company and its products on the internet, at low cost Reduction of investment costs, especially in technology. Minimize the risk of fraud, when carrying out the transaction within the marketplace. § § Benefit from powerful technological tools to segment and reach the potentially most relevant customers. Access the services offered by the marketplace, such as logistics, payment system, customer service and others. § The main data that we have to take into account is the growing weight that marketplaces have been occupying worldwide in online sales. Distribu,on of online purchases worldwide as of July 2021 by channel CONFLICT WITH SOLUTIONS MY PHYSICAL DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL? POSSIBLE In fact, electronic commerce has made it much easier for any company to sell online anywhere in the world, being able to do it directly without the need for intermediaries and paying the respec6ve commissions. But, what happens in the case of companies that already have other oﬄine sales channels? One of the cri6cal aspects of an e-commerce strategy is to achieve its op6mal combina6on with oﬄine sales channels. In many sectors, the percep6on of the Internet has connota6ons of threat to the tradi6onal channel, as it is interpreted as a cost-eﬃcient channel capable of gradually replacing the physical medium. Depending on the posi6on of the company in the value chain (which will be very diﬀerent if the company is a manufacturer or if it is a distributor / marketer / retailer), the op6ons vary, the conﬂict resul6ng from manufacturers or brands launching being very common to sell on the Internet to the ﬁnal consumer, coming into direct conﬂict with its tradi6onal sales channel, which feels "a`acked" by its current suppliers. On the part of the tradi6onal channel, the resistance to the online medium will be greater the lower the value they contribute in this new chain and they must rigorously evaluate the percep6on that the new consumer has of their tradi6onal business. This situa6on, which evidently slows down the “digital” impulse, can give rise to diﬀerent strategies on the part of manufacturers: § Integration of the traditional channel in the online strategy: either because they provide some value in this new chain, serving, for example, as an intermediate § § § warehouse or as a point of delivery / return of products, customer service, aftersales services, installation, repairs, etc.. It is a way for the online channel value chain to use part of the physical channel in some part of the process. Sometimes, the benefits of the online channel are shared with the rest of the channel, assigning, for example, a commission to the distributor closest to the postal code of the online buyer. Sale of a range of different and / or complementary and / or discontinued products to the one marketed in the traditional channel: in this way, the problem of possible competition is avoided since there is no real conflict between channels, when different products are sold or to be able to use the Internet as a "settlement" channel for products from previous or discontinued seasons. This strategy of selling products from other seasons is precisely what has driven the success of private club companies such as Vee Pee or Privalia. Creation of a “second brand” for online sales: with this, manufacturers seek to take advantage of the cost advantages of the Internet without giving up their traditional source of income. However, this strategy does not allow to take advantage of the synergies of the online channel, since it does not allow the identification of the user with the well-known brand, in addition to forcing the development of a new product and its corresponding communication strategy, with the consequent investment requirements. Sale of "personalized" products: as they are unique products and different from those offered in the standard catalog by the traditional channel, the conflict disappears, offering added value to the customer looking for an exclusive product without detriment to the sale of common products standard catalog. The possibility in interna6onal environments that the distributor can provide greater value in the online sales process, through responsibility, for example, of the domes6c logis6cs chain (local warehousing and delivery) is a posi6ve factor in mi6ga6ng a poten6al conﬂict interest. This op6on introduces the possibility of mul6ple strategies (for example, the physical sale of the product by the distributor, keeping the company managing the brand and online communica6on), seeking that the digital channel cons6tutes a source of business genera6on for the local dealer. INTERNAL ANALYSIS OF THE COMPANY When a company decides to start its interna6onaliza6on process, it must consider a series of steps prior to making a decision about it, such as studying the markets to which it is going to target. Through various instruments, we will be able to obtain a broad and general vision of the digital economy in a given country, although we will need to address the main decision factors to successfully address the digital interna6onaliza6on strategy. Hence, the company must take into account the implica6ons that the decision to interna6onalize will have at the following levels: § § § § § § § § Product strategy: Are my products / services competitive in the national and international market? What are my differential values? Are all my products exportable online? Technological needs: Do I have the necessary technology, as well as the optimal human resources to serve it and make it evolve in line with the evolution of the digital business? Is the technology I use suitable for an international sales environment with “multi” requirements (multi-currency, multi-site and multilanguage?) Human team: It is necessary to address a key aspect: the conviction of the general management or the owner of the company in betting on the digital channel. Do I have the adequate human resources to develop and execute my international ecommerce strategy? Logistics: Is logistics an insurmountable barrier in my international strategy? Does my product have enough margin for cross-border logistics or for local logistics costs? What is my logistics strategy? Are there requirements for storage, delivery to the end user, or tariff and non-tariff barriers to market access? Do I have the right providers? Customer service: How will I support customers in new markets, with different languages? Do you have all the informative material? How are we going to answer your questions and inquiries? By what means? Legal and taxation aspects: What legal and tax environment exists in the target market with regard to e-commerce activities? Are there specific sectoral regulations on my product or service that prevent or hinder their commercialization in a specific market? What is the applicable tax environment? Is the same tax applicable to B2B and B2C clients? Marketing plan: Regarding Marketing, there are many alternatives to invest, depending on various factors such as the maturity of the business, type of product, target customer, markets to be reached, etc. The most important are SEO (website content), SEM (search engine marketing), Display (image advertising), Social networks. But there are many other digital marketing techniques like Affiliates, Retargeting, Influencers, Emailing, etc. Total investment required: Given the level of current technology, it is important to emphasize that it is the online marketing and HR items that take the “lion's share” in the launch of an online channel. LEVEL OF NECESSARY INVESTMENT: CRITICAL ASPECTS TO BE CONSIDERED The existence of mul6ple technological op6ons makes possible a total lowering of the total investment in technology, a situa6on possible thanks to the development of specialized plaforms. There are many technological solu6ons for selng up an e-commerce store, either in free license solu6ons (OpenSource) or low-cost rental solu6ons (SaaS). Many of the most successful ecommerce solu6ons on the market allow you to start a store with a very low cost, being able to improve and professionalize with the acquisi6on of addi6onal Templates and Plugins. Currently the most used e-commerce store solu6ons are: Shopify, Woocommerce, Prestashop, Adobe Commerce, Opencart and WixStores. Developing an online sales channel is "building a company within the company", in which many areas of knowledge come together and whose execu6on requires a mul6disciplinary proﬁle. The human resources necessary for ecommerce is one of the most important areas, since people are needed to manage the online store (products, images, texts, prices, promo6ons, etc.), receive orders and proceed with shipping, customer service. client (inquiries, complaints, etc.), social networks and digital marke6ng. The la`er alone is one of the largest investments that ecommerce will have, since it is necessary to a`ract traﬃc to our online store and highlight our products in the marketplaces. The interna6onaliza6on of the strategy can lead to an increase in the logis6cs sec6on, especially if the chosen op6on is to store the product in the des6na6on market. Obviously, if the strategic decision is to sell through Marketplace, the situa6on will be quite diﬀerent, in the case of Amazon, for example, it is possible to use logis6cs services with very compe66ve prices. FIRST STRATEGIC DECISIONS REGARDING ECOMMERCE In summary, the main ques6ons that help us deﬁne the best online interna6onaliza6on strategy are the following: What business model do we want to implement? B2B and / or B2C? A manufacturer that sells its products to distributors must consider whether it intends to replicate the same online business that it currently has oﬄine, or if it wants to create a new business model, directly to the end customer. In the case of interna6onal sales, this issue is extremely important, since the B2C business is much more complex (unit deliveries and returns, laws and regula6ons, languages, etc.) What markets do we want to export to? If, on the one hand, the online presence is an open door to the whole world, on the other hand, the speciﬁci6es of each country and the physical distances require a deﬁni6on of strategy by region, or even by country. Selling globally from your home country website can work when you're targe6ng a region or country similar to yours in language, culture, and social norms, or when similar markets are geographically close, such as the EU. Type of channel: Own store and / or Marketplace? The number one mistake your business can make with global expansion is inves6ng signiﬁcantly up front before valida6ng that your brand and products resonate with target markets. Ini6ally, you need to test, learn, and iterate. Before launching a localized online store, consider experimen6ng with a Marketplace that serves your des6na6on country or region. More than 50% of global online sales are made in Marketplaces. Product catalog: If you decide to sell to the customer online directly, to decide which products to export online, you will have to take into account aspects such as, if the price is compe66ve, if the packaging is adequate, if the logis6cal value is adequate for individual interna6onal shipments, it has professional product images and correct descrip6ons in diﬀerent languages, labels, regula6ons, etc. Some6mes it may be necessary to create speciﬁc products to export online, for example, to combine several low-value products in one package. Human and Financial Resources: The most cri6cal issue will always be the investment value necessary for online interna6onaliza6on. The highest values to take into account will always be investments in Digital Marke6ng, to compete in the global market and costs in Human Resources, with the new valences of ecommerce. The Marketplaces solu6on, possibly using outsourcing services, should always be considered by entrepreneurs, in order to test and gain experience in online export. RESEARCH – COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE TOOLS We can summarize it in two main objec6ves in this chapter of the guide: § Iden6fy the sources of informa6on necessary to obtain compe66ve intelligence on the possibili6es of companies in the online world and the situa6on of their compe66ve environment. § Know the main tools for analyzing markets, clients, compe6tors, distribu6on channels and marke6ng. Compe66ve intelligence is knowing the market and rivals. It is the result of a company's eﬀorts to gather and analyze informa6on about the industry, the business environment, compe6tors, and compe66ve products and services. It is so old that Sun Zu already men6oned it in her book The Art of War "Know your enemy and know yourself, and you will be victorious in a thousand ba`les." Compe66ve intelligence informa6on can be gathered through Google searches, visits to websites, social networks, online stores, marketplaces, etc. The most advanced compe66ve intelligence requires the use of speciﬁc tools, such as SemRush, Similarweb, Helium10, Jungle Scout Jungle Scout etc. Compe66ve Intelligence Tools are a fundamental area for decision making in the deﬁni6on of interna6onal digital strategy. They allow to manage expecta6ons, obtaining a realis6c approxima6on of the probability of success of the company. They are tools, mainly pay-per-use, with accessible and important costs for the opera6onal management of our strategy, but which require specialized personnel for proper analysis and interpreta6on. For what ques6ons do we want an answer? What is my compe66on's business model? What Internet channels and plaforms are you using to a`ract customers and sales? What pricing policy are you using? What is your sales success? What techniques and investments in marke6ng? What strategies are you using? A FIRST INTERNAL ANALYSIS Interna6onal consumers may already be interested in the goods and services you oﬀer, even if you never thought of expanding interna6onally. Finding out if you appeal to a global audience can help you decide where and how to expand. You can do this by analyzing current traﬃc and sales data by country in your analy6cs dashboards: Google Analy,cs: View your loca6on report (Audience> Geo> Loca6on) to get detailed informa6on about the loca6on of your visitors. Set up segments to break down interna6onal traﬃc by con6nent, country, region or city, and to understand customer behavior. Website or e-commerce plaMorm: If your website or e-commerce plaform oﬀers robust reports, create dashboards that show sessions by country, customers by country, and sales by billing country to ﬁnd out if you are involved in cross-border commerce. Parallel segment comparison helps inform your decision to expand. Ideas like these are likely to emerge: o If you ﬁnd that Asian customers bounce oﬀ your checkout page then it may not oﬀer payment in local currencies, display prices that include tariﬀs, or include the proper address ﬁelds o If you ﬁnd that Australian visitors bounce oﬀ your returns page then your returns policy may not support interna6onal purchases, or it may lack transparency and details. When you have signiﬁcant traﬃc from a par6cular region or country, but you're not conver6ng visitors at the same rate as your home country, consider crea6ng a localized online store and paying to drive sales. MARKET AND PRODUCT RESEARCH Search engines The most common way to conduct market, product and compe66on research is a search engine, such as Google. This is where we must begin the analyzes that we intend to do, always bearing in mind that we must do the searches in "private browsing", so that the results are not inﬂuenced by the browsing and search history. What do my compe6tors do and where do they sell? If we search for a speciﬁc product or a compe6tor brand, we will see very important informa6on about our compe6tors on the ﬁrst page of results: § § § Competitors' ads appear at the top of the page, that is, which brands are betting on SEM (Search Engine Marketing), especially with Google Ads Also on the first page, the stores that bet on the presence in Google Shopping can appear, with images of products and prices. It is also common for many small businesses to bet on their presence on Google Maps, which can also appear on the first page of Google results. The organic results list (without ads) are the websites that best invest in SEO (search engine optimization) in their online content, as well as the main sales and online marketing channels: Marketplaces, eRetailers, Social Networks. Google Shopping SEM Google Adwords Google Market Finder h`ps://markefinder.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/es_es/ Google Market Finder is Google's free interna6onal market research tool. It is a powerful market research tool, which is based on data from searches carried out by users around the world through the Internet, obtaining sta6s6cs on the number of 6mes a user searches for a keyword in diﬀerent languages and countries of the world, provides us with sta6s6cs on trends, keywords and consumer behavior, all classiﬁed by country. It is a quick way to locate possible markets for our company and analyze the feasibility of expanding our online business outside the borders of our country. In short, the Market Finder tool recommends the best markets for your company and provides you with all the sta6s6cs you need to inves6gate the viability of carrying out your own global business plan. Sta,sta h`ps://www.sta6sta.com/ Sta6sta is a German online sta6s6cs portal that makes market and opinion research data available to the user. as well as economic indicators and oﬃcial sta6s6cs in German, English, Spanish and French. According to data from the company itself, its plaform has more than a million sta6s6cs on around 80,000 topics from some 22,500 sources. With this, 170 diﬀerent sectors are covered. Sta6sta currently has 2 million registered users. With the Base Account (free) you can already have access to many basic sta6s6cs and downloads with Oﬃce. The Single Account, ideal for accessing all sta6s6cs, has a cost of € 49 per month with access to more than a million sta6s6cs, op6mized search, download in various formats and access to reference sources. The Corporate Account, which allows access to dossiers, forecasts and studies, as well as interna6onal databases, has a cost from € 625 per month. For e-commerce analysis, we can look for data from: o Countries o Sectors o Distribu6on channels o Trends o Consump6on habits o Social networks o Compe6tors An example graph from Sta6sta: Most popular ecommerce websites worldwide in June 2020, by unique visitors (in millions) Source: Statista 2020 Google Trends h`ps://trends.google.es/ Google Trends is a free tool that allows you to track the evolu6on of the number of searches for a par6cular keyword over 6me, it allows you to compare search trends in a given country or globally against seasonality. The data available in the service is extremely valuable for any digital marke6ng strategy, for example: o Content produc6on o Campaign planning o Look for trends o Comparison between search terms Access 2 Markets h`ps://trade.ec.europa.eu/access-to-markets/en/home The Access2Markets (formerly Market Access Database) website provides informa6on to companies expor6ng from the EU on import condi6ons in third country markets. How does this help you? / What informa6on can you get? o Du6es and taxes on imports of products in speciﬁc countries o Procedures and documents necessary for customs clearance in the des6na6on country o Sta6s6cs on trade ﬂows of goods between EU countries and third countries o Trade barriers that aﬀect their exports o Food safety / animal health / phytosanitary measures o Preferen6al agreements and rules of origin o Services for SMEs o Commercial informa6on of the country TOOLS TO ANALYZE MY COMPETITORS Similarweb h`ps://www.similarweb.com/ Similarweb allows you to analyze the traﬃc volume of a compe6tor or any other website that we may be interested in analyzing, for example, a possible distribu6on channel. The free version allows access to very interes6ng data from a large number of websites worldwide, as long as you have relevant traﬃc. We can consult data such as: o ranking of the website in rela6on to traﬃc (global, by country and by category); o total visits in the last 6 months; o average length of visit; or pages per visit; o site bounce rate; o percentage of visitors by country; o traﬃc sources (direct, referral, search, social, email, display ads); or referrer sites and des6na6on sites; o search keywords (organic and paid); or source of social media traﬃc; o proﬁle of the visi6ng public (categories of interest, other websites accessed); or compe6tors and similar sites (by topic and rank in search results). To use the tool, simply go to the Similarweb website and enter the address of the website from which we want to obtain informa6on. SEMrush h`ps://es.semrush.com/ It is an SEO tool for web analysis and compe6tor analysis, which oﬀers several important metrics and data related to SEO posi6oning to deﬁne and analyze the content strategy. SemRush is an online tool that allows you to do a complete monitoring of keywords, either for organic posi6oning or for paid searches. With the Semrush tool we can analyze a website or a speciﬁc keyword. The main tools of SemRush are the following: o Organic and paid traﬃc analysis: Domain analysis is one of the most used op6ons by users of this tool. We just have to put the domain in ques6on in the search engine, select the country and wait for it to generate the organic and paid traﬃc data; Backlinks, Display Adver6sing; Organic keywords; Main organic compe6tors; Best paid keywords; Main payment compe6tors; Sample ads; Be`er links; Referring domains o Keyword Magic Tool: One of the most important ac6ons in the posi6oning of a page, whether at an organic or paid level, is the search for keywords and SEMRush, in this aspect, generates results for volume, number of results, CPC and compe66on. With the free access version it is already possible to access certain website informa6on and keywords, but SemRush has a large number of tools, with paid packages star6ng at $ 99.95. Builtwith h`ps://builtwith.com/es/ Through the Builtwith website we can inves6gate what technologies our compe6tors use. We can obtain advanced informa6on on the market share of each technology and analysis by country for all web technologies. BuiltWith covers over 45,665 internet technologies including analy6cs, adver6sing, hos6ng, ecommerce, CMS, and many more. BuiltWith is a website proﬁling, lead genera6on and business intelligence tool that provides technology adop6on, e-commerce data, and usage analy6cs for the Internet. It helps to create lists of websites that use par6cular web technologies and also lists of websites within speciﬁc ecommerce categories. Ghostery h`ps://www.ghostery.com/ Ghostery shows you the invisible web (cookies, tags, web errors, pixels, and beacons) and provides you with a list of over 1,900 ad networks, behavioral data providers, web publishers, and other companies interested in your ac6vity. We then help you obtain informa6on about those companies, so you can make informed decisions about what you are or are not willing to share and control your privacy online. COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS TOOLS FOR MARKETPLACES Jungle Scout h`ps://www.junglescout.com/ Analyze the Amazon Marketplace with Jungle Scout. JungleScout is a cloud applica6on whose main objec6ve is to show data and sta6s6cs that will help in the selec6on process of the products to sell, iden6fying market niches and studying the compe66on. The Product Database provides you with the en6re Amazon catalog. It allows you to ﬁlter thousands of products by category, price, demand, sales index, ra6ngs, size, and more, to ﬁnd the best products to resell. With Jungle Scout, you can analyze and make decisions based on real results and sta6s6cs. You can extract and export the following informa6on in Excel: o Product name o Brand o Price o Category o Classiﬁca6on o Sales es6mate o Es6mated income o Evalua6ons o Average score or BSR o Weight and measurements o FBA cost The JungleScout Niche-Hunter calculates the ability to sell a product, showing the main distributors and the quality index for each search key. The Product Tracker can track your compe6tor's ac6vi6es, including loose prices and inventory, with just one click. Helium10 h`ps://www.helium10.com/ Helium 10 are so{ware tools for Amazon sellers. It contains more than a dozen tools that help Amazon sellers ﬁnd keywords, iden6fy trends, study the compe66on, and fully op6mize product lis6ngs to increase sales exponen6ally. Through the HELIUM 10 tool, we can analyze the category in AMAZON by: o TOTAL INCOME FROM PRODUCT CATEGORY o AVERAGE MONTHLY INCOME OF THE CATEGORY o AVERAGE PRICE OF o AVERAGE RATINGS o PROBABILITY OF SALES SUCCESS What is Helium 10 for? o PRODUCT SEARCH: Discover winning product ideas and drill down into these markets to research and validate those ideas. o KEYWORD RESEARCH: Discover the keywords that drive traﬃc to help drive more traﬃc to your list. o PRODUCT LAUNCH: Launch products and rank for keywords. Determine how many units you will need to sell to rank your keywords on page 1. o LISTING OPTIMIZATION: Quickly create and op6mize your product lis6ngs to generate sales. o FOLLOW THE KEYWORDS: Track all your keywords, including their ranking and Amazon badges. o REFUND: Get a refund for lost or damaged inventory that Amazon has not refunded How to Search for Marketplaces Emarketservices h`ps://www.emarketservices.es/ ICEX provides a tool for Spanish companies to search for the most suitable marketplaces worldwide to export their products. One of the main services oﬀered by eMarket Services is its directory of electronic markets or marketplaces. It is a catalog that currently has about 1,000 electronic markets and other online sales plaforms out of the more than 3,000 analyzed. The purpose of the eMarket Services directory is to facilitate expor6ng companies the search for ac6ve electronic markets that may be of interest to their interna6onal ac6vity. The idea is to provide assistance in this ﬁrst phase. Next, it is necessary to study the func6onali6es and services of the electronic market in ques6on, and assess their relevance to the needs of the company. Marketplaces research can be done through: or country o Sector o Type of seller o Plaform type o Focus AICEP h`ps://www.portugalexporta.pt/ The Portuguese Investment and Foreign Trade Agency created a support service for Portuguese companies, carrying out a digital diagnosis for the company and sugges6ng markets for the export of their products. MAIN MARKETPLACES AND TOOLS FOR B2B STRATEGIES INTRODUCTION We can deﬁne marketplaces (or electronic markets) as electronic plaforms where commercial exchanges take place between diﬀerent companies or between companies and individuals. Its main value proposi,on is to increase the possibili,es of selling products or services, by providing a mee,ng point between buyers and sellers where the company beneﬁts from the investment in traﬃc genera,on in which the marketplace has invested. Its func6onali6es are very broad and depend to a great extent on the market to which they are directed: we can place your products in them, search for suppliers, dispose of excess stock in a 6mely manner with auc6ons or classiﬁeds, generate greater visibility for our own online store... Some examples oriented to B2C are Amazon or eBay, but there are also for B2B such as Alibaba.com, or other sectorial ones to sell to speciﬁc companies. In the process of strategic deﬁni6on of the online sales channel, it is necessary to iden6fy both ver6cal marketplaces (those specialized in speciﬁc products or markets that seek speciﬁc consumer niches) and horizontal ones (more general by deﬁni6on, but also typically with greater capacity to generate traﬃc as it is aimed at a wider audience). Marketplaces face the challenge of needing cri6cal mass on both sides of the scale: buyers and sellers. If at any given moment it manages to a`ract many sellers and they cannot sell their products, they will give up leaving the marketplace empty of content. If, on the contrary, an aggressive marke6ng campaign is carried out and a large number of new customers are a`racted, but they do not ﬁnd an a`rac6ve oﬀer, they will not only not buy, but probably will not return in the future because they consider it a waste of 6me. Therefore, determining its degree of cri6cal mass (usually measured in terms of traﬃc) will be a key factor in determining the interest of a certain marketplace for our strategy. In some cases, it is the marketplaces themselves (such as Amazon, Yoox Net-a-Porter in the fashion sector or JD.com in China, for example), who, in the case of certain products, do not limit themselves to ren6ng the virtual space and serve as shop windows or “virtual shopping centers”, but instead buy the product directly from the manufacturing company (or, in addi6on, from large distributors) for sale through the marketplace, obtaining a greater margin for the purchase and consolida6ng, through through this model, as authen6c virtual retailers. In the most advanced marketplaces, such as Amazon or Alibaba, the most interes6ng thing is their determined commitment to become integral providers of the ecommerce value chain, providing services such as logis,cs (Fulﬁllment by Amazon or Fulﬁllment by Aliexpress), payment services such as Amazon Pay, Pay Later on Alibaba.com or PayPal itself) or digital adver,sing (such as Amazon Marke6ng Services or Alibaba.com's Keyword Adver6sing Service). Even certain marketplaces, such as the case of Alibaba or Amazon, have recently entered the provision of ﬁnancial services, entering into a direct confronta6on with banks. In short, the large marketplaces are postulated as major players in the interna6onaliza6on of digital business, even more so with the paralysis of world trade, as there was no precedent, mo,vated by the global pandemic of Covid-19. We can say that the B2B, whose maximum exponent is Alibaba.com, has thus found the perfect storm to vindicate its need in the face of new unexpected events that limit contacts; but not only for that reason, but also for the advantages and cost savings of being in contact with a poten6al buyer, anywhere and at any 6me. B2B Marketplaces allow (companies) customers and suppliers to interact without the need to travel, whether it is the case of a transac6onal Marketplace (Amazon Business, for example) or not (as is the case with Alibaba.com, which is ¨ limited ”to put them in contact, to agree on the transac6on outside the Marketplace). ALIBABA.COM: B2B MARKET LEADER At present, Alibaba Group is a group of Internet businessoriented companies. It was founded in 1999 by 18 people and was spearheaded by Jack Ma, a former English teacher in Hangzhou, China, who has aspired to help make the Internet accessible, reliable, and beneﬁcial for all. Currently, the Alibaba Group employs more than 45,000 people worldwide and has more than 70 oﬃces in China, Singapore, India, the United Kingdom and the United States. Its mission is to facilitate the task of buying or selling anywhere in the world. Since its crea6on, it has developed leading companies in the e-commerce sector: Online payment method (Alipay) Interna6onal B2B Sales Marketplace (Alibaba.com) B2B sales marketplace in the Chinese market (1688.com) C2C Sales Marketplace (Taobao.com) Luxury B2C Sales Marketplace in China (Tmall.com) B2C Sales Marketplace (Aliexpress.com) Group purchasing plaform: (Yuhuasuan) Cloud compu6ng (Ali Cloud) Shopping search engine (Etao.com) The original company, www.alibaba.com, launched in 1999, is the leading B2B e-commerce plaMorm for companies around the world. Its objec6ve is to be the go-to-market plaform in the English language for cross-border trade and to help companies around the world to expand their interna6onal presence and iden6fy business opportuni6es. Currently Alibaba is a B2B plaform with more than 160 million registered impor,ng companies (buyers) and more than 6 million expor,ng companies (sellers) registered to oﬀer their products in more than 200 countries, it presents products ranging from raw materials to ﬁnished products , in more than 60 industry categories, including fashion, beauty, personal care, electrical supplies, home and garden, machinery, agriculture, etc. Among the poten6al buyers / distributors we highlight China, USA, Russia, United Kingdom, and Germany, although Alibaba is present in any country since it is a global portal. Buyers on Alibaba.com are usually commercial agents, wholesalers, retailers, manufacturers and SMEs engaged in the import and export business. The moment a poten6al buyer contacts the distributor, they leave their contact details, thus ini6a6ng an oﬄine export nego6a6on (via messages within the portal, Skype, telephone, etc.). This type of contact can be mediated through two channels: RFQ (Request For Quota,on): The buyer, in a public way, makes a request for an es6mate so that the Gold Supplier companies respond with a proposal. Inquiry: The buyer, individually, looks for suppliers and makes a query (Inquiries). The vendor must have a Gold Supplier membership to be able to respond to a greater number of requests for quotes. There is the possibility of opening a free account, although Alibaba's business model focuses on the suppliers becoming Gold Suppliers, that is, suppliers that pay an annual fee to Alibaba.com for increasing their visibility within the plaform. There are 3 payment packages (Basic, Standard and Premium), with an annual fee of $ 1,399, $ 2,999 and $ 5,999, respec6vely. The diﬀerence between the 3 packages lies in the greater visibility in searches within the plaform, a higher level of Showcases, that is, the possibility of highligh6ng those products that the company decides and a greater capacity for storing photos. Any interna6onal online sales strategy must take into account Alibaba, the e-commerce giant that is unmatched by any other in numbers. Selling interna6onally with the Chinese giant Alibaba is a guarantee of success for any digital business. But to take a business to a higher level it is necessary to become a Gold Supplier, that is, to be one of the most privileged members of the Alibaba network to reach the millions of buyers around the world at any 6me. Buyers can locate a product by browsing the catalog or using the general search engine. As in the vast majority of electronic markets, the products that are marketed on this plaform do not belong to Alibaba, so the inquiries and purchase / sale requests made of any of the published products or services are sent directly to the manufacturer. , and the payment and delivery condi6ons are also agreed between the par6es. What is NOT Alibaba.com? ALIBABA.COM is not a marketplace focused on the Chinese Market, it is a marketplace (plaform) of Chinese origin where we ﬁnd expor6ng companies from all over the world oﬀering their products and impor6ng companies from all over the world demanding their products. ALIBABA.COM is not a B2C marketplace, that is, it is not a marketplace to oﬀer its products to the end consumer. Alibaba is a cross-company marketplace for expor6ng / impor6ng products. The ﬁnal consumer version of Alibaba is called ALIEXPRESS. Next, we list other companies of the Alibaba group, especially useful if the interna6onal online strategy is focused on the Chinese market: o 1688.com is the marketplace belonging to the Alibaba group that facilitates export to China. This B2B marketplace allows Spanish companies to contact or be contacted by those Chinese companies that want to import our products. o Taobao: it is the most popular C2C shopping marketplace in China. o Tmall.com: China's most popular B2C luxury shopping marketplace. Tmall Global allows you to reach the other side of the spectrum, that of foreign companies that want to approach the Chinese market without the bureaucra6c, legal and investment requirements necessary to develop a business in China. o Aliexpress: is a global B2C marketplace, made up of sellers of small and medium-sized companies o Alipay: it is the online payment method owned by the group and the true cornerstone on which the Alibaba group pivots o Alibaba Cloud: it is the company that oﬀers compu6ng services in the "cloud". OTHER B2B MARKETPLACES Amazon Business Sector: Mul6sectoral Geographical scope: USA, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan and India, Es6mated traﬃc per month: 1,160 million visitors. Amazon Business is an addi6onal service for Amazon sellers, which meets the purchasing needs of any type of business. It is the Amazon that we already know, but available for B2B sales. It currently has more than 1 million business users, with Amazon Business Seller, you have access to all exis6ng Amazon customers and the addi6onal opportunity to increase your sales, by reaching new commercial customers of all types and sizes, from freelancers and SMEs to large global corpora6ons. To have access to Amazon Business it is necessary to have a Seller account, it is not necessary to oﬀer your B2C products, but you will have to have an account registered on the plaform. You can sign up for Amazon Business for free, from your central Seller account with one click. Your inventory on Amazon and Amazon Business is exactly the same, but the prices don't have to be. As an Amazon Business seller, you can set diﬀerent business prices or quan6ty discounts for your business customers and take advantage of Amazon logis6cs and the automa6c ability to sell throughout the EU, as well as other con6nents where the service is ac6ve. Respond to a request for a quote: As in Alibaba.com, when a buyer is interested in your product, they will contact you and a nego6a6on will be opened, where good agreements can be reached and a las6ng business rela6onship can be created. Addi6onal services: As an Amazon Business seller, you will be able to oﬀer quan6ty discounts and exclusive oﬀers for companies, as well as the display of prices with VAT excluded and the issuance of VAT invoices for all your oﬀers on Amazon. Condi6ons to be a seller: Register a seller account, for this, you must provide all the seller informa6on and all the necessary informa6on about your business (type of business, place and date of establishment, company registra6on number, VAT number, bank account informa6on, etc.) and a`ach them to the plaform. Amazon may ask you for addi6onal informa6on at any 6me to verify your business. 1688.com Sector: Mul6sectoral Geographical scope: China Es6mated traﬃc per month: 18.2 million Belonging to Alibaba Group and with more than 120 million users, and more than 10 million stores covering 49 industries, 1688.com connects foreign exporters with Chinese retailers. SoloStocks Sector: Mul6sectoral Geographical scope: Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Argen6na, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Morocco Es6mated traﬃc per month: more than 5.5 million visits (globally) Solostocks.com is the leading online sales portal for companies and professionals in Spain and with a strong interna6onal presence, mainly in Europe and La6n America. Virtual Expo A selec6on of Marketplaces belonging to the Virtual Expo group, a world leader in the online B2B lead genera6on market. It has six B2B Marketplaces, each one specialized in a sector, aeronau6cs, agriculture, architecture and design, industrial, medicine and technology, naviga6on and mari6me. In total there are more than 39.5 K exhibitors, 1.6 million distributors, 1.2 million products and 451 K catalogs. ArchiExpo, AgriExpo and MedicalExpo are 3 of the most important marketplaces of this group. Direct Industry Specialized in the industrial sector, it is aimed at buyers, produc6on managers, maintenance managers and consul6ng engineers. Geographical scope: Global, with greater presence in Europe Monthly traﬃc: 2.2 million LINKEDIN FOR B2B STRATEGIES LinkedIn is the world's largest social network for companies and professionals, with more than 600 million ac6ve users in more than 200 countries. In this social network you can ﬁnd companies and professionals who seek to promote themselves, do networking and business. LinkedIn is an eﬀec6ve tool to generate B2B leads, many companies have not yet explored in depth and this becomes a great opportunity, a very interes6ng B2B strategy to penetrate speciﬁc markets. LinkedIn has a B2B sales tool, "LinkedIn Sales Navigator" that allows you to op6mize the search to ﬁnd the desired target, gelng the leads that can guarantee the most conversions. It provides informa6on on sales, advanced search tools, recommenda6ons from poten6al clients, email messages and other func6onali6es. Showcase Pages are mini landing pages, extensions of your LinkedIn page. At the moment, a product page can only be associated with a LinkedIn main page (that is, it does not have an independent existence) and is designed to highlight a brand or a business line, adap6ng it to the segment of the audience you want to target. Up to 10 product pages can be created associated with your LinkedIn home page, including a featured image, descrip6on, des6na6on URL, and speciﬁc content. Fixed cost: Sales Navigator service € 59.99 per month Addi,onal services: LinkedIn has a large number of tools available for Company Pages, including the “Analy6cs”, “Products and services” and “Careers” tabs, various forms of adver6sing and marke6ng op6ons: Sponsored Content Sponsored InMail (Sponsored InMail) Text Ads (Text Ads) Dynamic Ads (Dynamic Ads) Video Ads (LinkedIn Video Ads) Condi,ons to be a seller: No speciﬁc criteria are speciﬁed, you only have to create your company page on the plaform. MAIN MARKETPLACES FOR B2C STRATEGIES INTRODUCTION Let us now in this chapter analyze the value proposi6on and main func6onali6es of the most important marketplaces in a B2C environment, especially the Amazon ecosystems, and also analyze the cri6cal areas of knowledge of an online sales channel, its main costs, beneﬁts, tools and main suppliers. In interna6onal purchases (crossborder) the main e-commerce plaforms are Marketplaces: Online plaMorm where interna,onal digital buyers from around the world made their most recent interna,onal digital purchase in September 2020. Fuente: Statista 2020 The cross-border e-commerce shopper study, conducted in 26 countries, revealed that Amazon, eBay and Alibaba accounted for 60% of all interna6onal purchases. AMAZON Founded in 1994, Amazon was one of the Internet pioneers in pulng the customer at the center of its a`en6on, and from there, working backwards in the value chain with a single goal: to provide consumers and companies with a unique site to ﬁnd any type of product that can be purchased online. The value proposi6on for consumers is to oﬀer through its website the widest variety of products, at the best price and with the greatest possible comfort, surpassing Google itself in cases where the buyer intends to purchase; its objec6ve, unlike other models such as private sales clubs, was not to oﬀer limited discounts in 6me on a certain category of products, but to oﬀer low prices on a con6nuous basis. Their websites are designed to allow millions of unique products, across dozens of product categories, to be sold by both the company itself and third-party sellers. Amazon leads the global online trade: Most Popular Online Retail Websites Worldwide in June 2020, by Unique Visitors (in Millions) For sellers, the value proposi,on focuses, as a good marketplace model, on the traﬃc generated by Amazon, which grants a privileged posi,on or "single point of purchase" for consumers and, therefore, being a site where sellers are interested in posi6oning their product. These, regardless of whether they had their own online store, are aware of the advantage of addi6onally selling in a global marketplace, with very low costs (between 7% and 15%, depending on the products) and with the possibility of beneﬁ6ng from both a trusted brand and a series of services, designed to facilitate the user's purchase and maximize the conversion of visits into sales. Sellers can open their store on Amazon, reaching millions of customers in any of the following categories: Books, video games, so{ware, electronics, music, DVD, computers, toys and games, kitchen, home and garden, DIY and tools, instruments musicals and sound. Likewise, they have mul6ple support tools: the possibility of uploading inventory lists automa6cally, genera6ng reports and other informa6on related to sales, as well as technical support 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Amazon works with two clearly diﬀerent models, Amazon Vendor (also called Amazon Retail) and Amazon Seller. In the VENDOR model, Amazon acts as a tradi,onal distributor, with direct purchase of a wholesale order from the customer, a{er nego6a6on with the customer. In the SELLER model, Amazon operates as a “pure marketplace”, charging a monthly fee and a commission for each sale made. Vendor You sell your products to Amazon wholesale Amazon sets the price of your product and controls the stock Seller (Pro) You sell to the end customer. Your expenses: € 39 per month + 15% commission on products Full control over the price and stock of your products Payment for each Amazon order within 6090 days Payment within 2 weeks after the sale. Managing your account: You can create various advertising / slow catalog update options (Amazon reviews it) Managing your account: You can create various advertising / quick catalog update options Amazon takes care of logistics and customer service You must take care of customer service and logistics (optional to use Amazon logistics) How to sell on Amazon Seller is simple: sellers upload their product inventory (which includes barcode), customers view and buy products. Amazon sends the purchase order to the seller a{er veriﬁca6on of the consumer's credit card. The seller then receives the order, sends the order to the consumer and conﬁrms the order in their seller account. An addi6onal value oﬀered by Amazon is that, in the event of online fraud by the buyer, this is assumed by the plaform. A{er shipment conﬁrma6on, the full amount of the sale is charged to the consumer, and in a 14-day cycle, all net proﬁts from the sales are transferred to the seller's bank account. A requirement demanded by Amazon is the so-called price parity, according to which the seller agrees not to oﬀer more expensive prices than in its other online channels, in the spirit always in mind of the company to oﬀer the best prices to its consumers. But perhaps one of the most interes6ng services for online sellers is to be able to sell in a uniﬁed way through a single account in 8 Amazon marketplaces in Europe (France, Germany, Spain, Italy, United Kingdom, Poland, Czech Republic and Holland.), expanding the market of poten6al clients. Once the appropriate modiﬁca6ons have been made to the product sheet (transla6ons or diﬀerent images by country, if applicable), this service allows the company to undertake an accelerated process of "digital interna6onaliza6on", facilita6ng what would otherwise require high budgets of investment in online marke6ng in each of the markets and, assuming a complementary or alterna6ve channel to direct sales through their own online sales channel. Likewise, and reinforcing its character as a strong compe6tor to Google and Facebook, the leaders in the online adver6sing market, there is the possibility of adver6sing on Amazon, through its adver6sing plaform, Amazon Adver,sing. The possibility of having an adver6sing model to highlight the products of its customers is an important source of present and future income for Amazon, as well as an interes6ng promo6onal tool to take into account in the marke6ng mix of companies that seek to diﬀeren6ate themselves from their compe6tors. In full coherence with the philosophy of services, Amazon has con6nued to develop services for third par6es in the rest of the value chain. For example, Fulﬁllment by Amazon is Amazon's own logis,cs system oﬀered to third par,es. With FBA, the seller can send their products to Amazon to be stored in one of its logis6cs centers and take advantage of the physical distribu6on capabili6es of the products once sold, either within Amazon or through the online store of the client. The opera6on is equally simple: the seller sends their products to one of Amazon's warehouses, where they are stored. Customers buy their products and Amazon collects, packages and transports them to the end customer on behalf of the seller, injec6ng them into the usual logis6cs of products sold by Amazon or its sellers. There is no need to be an Amazon seller, so it is conﬁgured as an independent logis6cs service, yes, with the possibility of integra6ng with the rest of Amazon's services, if the seller so decides. Also in the payment method, Amazon oﬀers its own solu,on: Amazon Pay. It is a means of payment, similar to Paypal, that allows you to make secure purchases using the payment methods you use at Amazon.com on other internet websites that accept Amazon Payments, although it has not yet achieved the level of interna6onaliza6on of other compe6tors such as PayPal itself. With an Amazon Pay account, the buyer can make purchases without having to re-enter their payment informa6on, highligh6ng the concept of “One-click payment”, highly recommended, as we will see, from a usability and conversion point of view.. As an alterna6ve to the use of bank payment gateways or systems such as PayPal, the Amazon Pay service allows the seller to integrate the Amazon payment solu6on in their online store, allowing the millions of Amazon customers to pay easily and the The processing process is outsourced to Amazon, and all this without leaving the seller's website and without the risk of fraud, as the seller beneﬁts from the fraud detec6on capabili6es of Amazon's risk management system. The Pro plan gives you the opportunity to sell an unlimited number of products and pay a monthly subscrip,on fee of € 39 (excluding VAT) + commissions. OTHER B2C MARKETPLACES Aliexpress: is a global B2C marketplace, made up of sellers of small and medium-sized companies that oﬀer a wide variety of consumer products at great prices and mainly oriented to export. Launched in April 2010, AliExpress is dedicated to lis6ng unique products in more than 20 major product categories to its millions of registered buyers in more than 220 countries and regions. Like its “big brother” B2B (www.alibaba.com), Aliexpress oﬀers security measures through its Alipay payment plaform, through which the buyer deposits the transac6on money on the plaform and the plaform reimburses them the amount if you do not receive the product correctly or if, once received, it does not meet the agreed characteris6cs. That is, the seller does not receive the money un6l the consumer conﬁrms that what he has received and that it meets the characteris6cs of what you have bought. As we can see, one more mechanism to dispel any kind of distrust on the part of the buyer. ADVANTAGES OF YOUR PROJECT IN ALIEXPRESS: The seller provides a specific catalog depending on the user's country of purchase (personalization of content, currency, etc.). Multiple forms of payment and shipping at the buyer's choice. Sellers have complete freedom to customize their shipments. Being able to maintain its brand image and favoring the loyalty of its customers. The commissions in the means of payment are supported by Aliexpress, the seller has to pay only the commission per sale. Each seller will have a person who will offer them support within the Aliexpress platform, an Account Manager. With a Cross Border Ecommerce model, you can sell anywhere in Europe. We suggest starting with a series of priority countries and then expanding to secondary target markets. Ebay: Another of the Internet giants, Ebay, was born in 1995 as a bidding market for second-hand goods, although the evolu6on of its model has meant that, currently, 70% of sales come from sales of new items and that more and more professional sellers and companies are turning to its plaform, in a new strategy focused on providing B2B2C services to companies that are increasingly seeking professionaliza6on of their online sales and new marke6ng channels. The main evolu6on of the eBay model has been the transi6on from an early private secondhand seller using an auc6on model to a professional seller, who sells new items using the “Buy It Now” ﬁxed-price sales system. Ebay has refocused in recent years its strategy towards the provision of services for its sellers in the interna6onal market, which again represents an interna6onal marke6ng alterna6ve for professionals and companies; interna6onal sales on eBay oﬀer the opportunity to: Make the company's products available to more than 116 million customers around the world. Increase sales by expanding the ac6vity of the company to new markets. Discover new market niches for products. To sell on Ebay, you don't pay a ﬂat fee, but a 10% commission for each sale. Google Shopping: The evolu6on of one of the adver6sing formats most used by adver6sers in Google Ads is leading to an online Marketplace where manufacturers and sellers can sell on Google, with products appearing in the ﬁrst search results for certain keywords. To appear on Google Shopping, start by crea6ng a Google Merchant Center account and uploading product informa6on, then create a “Shopping” campaign in Ads. To appear among search results, Google works with an auc6on system. Shopping campaign requirements Before you can set up a Shopping campaign and create Shopping ads, you must meet several requirements. Google accounts: You will need to set up accounts with Google Merchant Center and Google AdWords and link them together. Policies: The content of both Shopping campaigns and ads must comply with Google Shopping policies, which are different from Google AdWords advertising policies. Before launching your advertising campaigns, you must ensure that your business type, your products, your promotions, and your website meet the Google Shopping requirements. Product data: You will have to send the updated data of your products every 30 days at least. Such data must meet Google quality standards, the purpose of which is to provide users with the best possible shopping experience and, at the same time, improve the performance of their ads. When providing your product data, you must adhere to the standards in the product feed specification and use Merchant Center to submit your products periodically. Note: In the countries that are part of the European Economic Area (EEA) and in Switzerland, you can par6cipate in Shopping ads through one or more shopping comparison services of your choice. Some of these services manage your product and campaign data on your behalf, while others provide tools with which you can manage your selngs yourself. The coronavirus pandemic has pressured the internet giant to accelerate its plans. Exis6ng customers will be able to integrate their complete inventories and only pay if they want to promote some products on the plaform Google has partnered with PayPal to apract more merchants to the plaMorm by allowing them to link their accounts to accept payments online. Google is also working with inventory management companies like Shopify and WooCommerce. Facebook and Instagram How to sell on Facebook and Instagram The two most successful social networks worldwide launch stores, turning business proﬁles into shop windows. Do you want to start selling on Facebook and Instagram? Business Commerce Manager is Facebook's tool that allows sellers to sell on plaforms, add inventory, manage orders, check account status, and much more. With Commerce Manager, businesses can sell products on channels their customers like, such as Instagram, Facebook Marketplace, and Facebook Page Shops. The ﬁrst step in selling on Facebook and Instagram is selng up a business account for your business. To set up a business account, go to Commerce Manager and follow the instruc6ons to get started. How is the commerce on Facebook and Instagram? People use Facebook and Instagram to connect with friends, family, and the brands they love. Today, people are spending more 6me on social media, and naturally the way they shop is changing too. Currently, in many countries customers can make purchases directly from the posts they see on Facebook and Instagram. Selling your products on these plaforms makes it easier for customers to discover your business and even complete their purchases with just a few clicks. By connec6ng commerce with the community, businesses like yours have the opportunity to grow, and poten6al customers can see your products on Facebook and Instagram. Informa6on on Facebook Page Stores If you have a Facebook business page, you can add a store. You can use this sec6on to display the products you sell and connect with more customers on Facebook. Although any business can have a store, this feature is best suited for merchants, retailers, and e-commerce adver6sers. We recommend it for companies that sell clothing, accessories (such as bags and suitcases), home furnishings, or baby and children's products. However, other types of businesses can also use a store to reach more people on Facebook. ~ Informa6on about Facebook stores Stores are a simple tool to create a personalized digital window in our en6re family of apps. A store allows you to inspire customers and help them ﬁnd the right products for them. In addi6on, the stores are very easy to set up and use, load faster than a mobile website, and allow you to have a global presence. Stores work like this: Sellers who had a store on an Instagram proﬁle or on a Facebook page will automa6cally switch to the stores feature. Before selng up your store, you must have received an email or a no6ﬁca6on that you can now use the Facebook stores. Certain businesses with a linked Facebook Page Store and Instagram Proﬁle may have a shared store on Instagram and Facebook. Informa6on on Marketplace for Business This feature is being rolled out gradually, not yet available in Europe. B2C VERTICAL MARKETPLACES There are currently thousands of markets, whether global, regional or local. In addi6on to general marketplaces, there are more and more marketplaces specialized in certain sectors, products or clients. These niche markets are called ver6cal markets. We list some examples of ver6cal Marketplaces that are reference at European level. Arts, Craqs, Giqs: Artsy, Etsy, Live Auc6oneers Household items: BrickLink, Conforama, Delamaison, ePRICE, Wayfair, Westwing Electronics: G2A.com, GAME, PC Components Music: Bandcamp, Discogs, Reverb Fashion: ASOS, Depop, Farfetch, Galeries Lafaye`e, Privalia, Spartoo, Zalando Tourism: Booking, Tripadvisor Wine: Bodeboca, Decantalo, Pour de Bon, Uvinum, Vinissimus, vivino.com In the chapter on compe66ve intelligence tools we give some examples of how to search Marketplaces, either by studying the compe66on, or using specialized websites. CRITICAL AREAS OF A B2C CHANNEL Crea6ng your own online store has some advantages in rela6on to the exclusive use of marketplaces, such as: More direct communication with the customer: In our own store we have full control over information and relationships with customers Possibility of creating a brand: In your own store you can enhance the brand more effectively, choosing colors, logos and the way the products are presented Autonomy of the company: You establish your own rules on your own website. Investing a little more time and resources, we will have decision-making capacity in terms of design, programming, content creation, etc. Avoid competition: In our online store only, our products are present However, the requirements and the respec6ve costs are quite considerable: o Technologies: Acquisi6on of the ecommerce plaform / applica6on, domain and hos6ng, graphic design and content o Digital Marke,ng: Genera6on of traﬃc to the point of sale o Development of the logis,cs model, deliveries and returns o Legal and ﬁscal processes for each des6na6on market o Selec6on of payment and security systems o Development of aqer-sales service processes: responses to complaints and claims, policies, processes. ECOMMERCE SOLUTIONS The ﬁrst big decision a company faces is whether to develop a custom solu,on or opt for more standardized solu,ons. Custom development is, in principle, more expensive and slow, being more used by large companies or companies that already have great success in online sales. Bespoke solu,ons allow maximum customiza,on, mee6ng all business requirements and products sold, but a total dependence on the development team. Within the standardized solu6ons, that is, e-commerce soqware packages, there are all kinds of solu6ons on the market, but they usually require some technical knowledge of website management and development. The most successful solu,ons on the market are Open Source, which allow companies to start up an online store at low cost and have many payment solu6ons (templates and plugins) to improve the online store over 6me. Some examples are Woocommerce, Magento, Prestashop, Opencart solu,ons, etc. An alterna6ve with an upward trend in the market, in line with the rise of cloud compu6ng or cloud compu6ng, is the use of electronic commerce plaforms in so{ware as a service (SaaS) mode, they are a great way to start ecommerce business, easy and low cost, but high quality. Shopify is the most successful in the world, but there are many others like Squarespace, Wix, Biscommerce, etc. The distribu6on of the use of electronic commerce throughout the Internet by ecommerce technologies is as follows: Source: Builtwith DIGITAL MARKETING Once the online store has been created, the real challenge begins: capturing traﬃc. How do we make our store known to poten6al consumers? The Internet has become the perfect tool for a company to manage communica6on or promo6on campaigns in any country in the world from a speciﬁc loca6on. The cost savings it allows, and the immediacy it provides, make the network our best ally when it comes to following any of the objec6ves of an interna6onal strategy. SEO - Search Engine Op,miza,on The ﬁrst technique consists of making consumers ﬁnd us, that is, that we are as visible as possible within search engines, especially Google. The sta6s6cs speak for themselves: almost all of the visits that most web pages receive come from search engines such as Google. This places great importance on posi6oning in search terms that companies ﬁnd most interes6ng. SEO on site represents the set of rules that Google establishes to understand the structure and content of a page in order to oﬀer users more relevant results in their searches. Its search algorithm changes quite frequently. On-site SEO includes the op6miza6on of keywords, user experience, loading 6mes, op6miza6on of the code and format of the URL's. Oﬀ-site SEO focuses on factors external to the website, such as the number and quality of links, social media, local media men6ons, brand authority, and performance in search results. It is essen6al that our website / store is performed excellently and that it is up to date. Technical knowledge is needed, so it is normal to resort to outsourcing the services of SEO specialists, hiring services from digital marke6ng agencies and using specialized tools in SEO analysis, such as: Google Analy6cs, Search Console, AHrefs, Mages6cSeo, SemRush. Search Engine Marke,ng (SEM) It is the ac6on that consists of posi6oning sponsored links according to payment and relevance (quality level) within search engines such as Google. Sponsored links are an adver6sing format of text (Google Adwords) and graphic (Google Display and Shopping) or video (YouTube videos), adapted to mobile devices, which contains a link to an adver6ser's web page (generally called a page of landing page). The search engine is paid only when the user clicks on said link (CPC model). Next, we are going to explain the main campaigns that you can develop as a Google client: Campaign on the Google search network: Ads ac6vated by the keywords that we buy and we will always pay for the clicks made according to the price set per click (Maximum CPC). Campaign on the Google Display Network: Google gives the op6on of placing our adver6sing on third party web pages. To do this, it has previously developed the so-called "Display Network", which brings together by subject all the web pages of third par6es interested in receiving extra remunera6on for adver6sing. Video campaigns: These are campaigns that either seek to insert adver6sing into exis6ng videos on YouTube or seek to promote a video on the display network or the search network. Remarke,ng campaigns: Remarke6ng tries to re-impact our brand with adver6sing to users who have already expressed an interest in our product by previously entering our website. Google Shopping campaign: It is very powerful, since it shows the products in our catalog in such a way that when someone clicks on the image, they go directly to that product's ﬁle to buy it. To do Google Shopping we have to import a feed of products from our store to a sec6on called "Google Merchant" so that, in this way, Google can collect the informa6on directly in our online store and show it to users who search using a keyword related to the product. Social Media Social networks are a fundamental channel of traﬃc to our website, they are a communica6on channel with poten6al customers and a customer service channel. With social networks we create interac6ons that signiﬁcantly increase references to our brands on the internet and the "backlinks" to our website, that is, they can help improve our search engine posi6oning. Based on the great segmenta6on capacity that each of the social networks has, these oﬀer another way of use, fully focused on the crea6on and development of business, which consists of making available to brands and companies speciﬁc loca6ons for promo6on formats and adver6sing. The formats to which we will refer below, have the par6cularity of being able to generate global and strictly segmented campaigns, both in the target audience and in the des6na6on country, according to the purposes pursued by each one. In this sense, they allow companies enormous ﬂexibility when crea6ng a conﬁgura6on adapted to their needs. In addi6on, there are analy6cal tools (own or third-party) in each of the campaign management plaforms of each social network, which allow obtaining current and exact informa6on on the results obtained and the performance and return of each euro invested. Facebook, YouTube and Twi`er are social networks with a presence all over the world, but in many countries they are not the most important. In Russia the most prominent is Vkontakte (VK), in Iran Cloob stands out, in China Renren or Sina Weibo stand out, etc. Facebook Ads Facebook is one of the most popular social networks worldwide. This has a wide variety of op6ons to promote content, products or services through ads. The types of ad formats available on Facebook are: Sequence or carousel. With photos or images. With videos. Of collec6on. Instant experience. Presenta6on. On the other hand, the plaform has three ad posi6oning op6ons. Right column: The ad appears on the right side of the user's feet or main news page. Computer news sec6on: These types of ads appear in the user's feed as soon as they access Facebook from a computer. These are usually expensive. Mobile news sec6on: They are displayed in the user's news feed much like a regular post. Instagram Ads Currently Instagram and Facebook share the same adver6sing plaform. This makes running a campaign for both apps a breeze. If you want to adver6se on Instagram, you can make ads in stories, ads with photos, with videos and sequences. For you to be successful, we recommend that these have a high visual poten6al. Twi`er Ads Twi`er is an excellent alterna6ve for adver6sing. Your campaigns can be easily tailored to various goals such as: increasing conversions, leads, and more. One of the advantages that this social network has over others is that its content is highly valued by users. So the ads you make in this could inﬂuence your audience in their purchase decision. Among the most eﬀec6ve ads are: Promoted accounts: The plaform will suggest users to follow your account with the promoted tag. The payment is made in rela6on to the number of new followers you get. Promoted Tweets: They are ideal for improving your reach and promo6ng your brand. Promoted trends: It consists of paying for your hashtag to be a trending topic in your country YouTube Ads If you want to promote your content or products (especially if they are videos or applica6ons) YouTube is an excellent alterna6ve. Some of the types of ads that you can ﬁnd are TrueView, standard banners, exclusive for mobile devices and more. LinkedIn Ads If one of your goals is to capture a professional audience, this social network is ideal for your adver6sing campaign. This professional plaform has the following types of ads: Ads with text. With Display Format. Dynamic. Sponsored content. InMails. Snapchat Ads Although the adver6sing plaform of this social network is not so popular, you can take advantage of it to be one step ahead of your compe6tors, you can make story, collec6on and ﬁlter ads. These can help you achieve the following goals: Awareness: Increase your brand awareness and increase your audience. Considera6on: Generate more power customers, interac6ons, sales, downloads or visits to your website. Conversion: drive conversions for visits to your website or sales. Pinterest Ads Pinterest is an excellent social network for adver6sing. It has some alterna6ves so you can promote your pins. These are: Ads manager: This allows you to select the objec6ve of your campaign. And later design your adver6sement. Promo6on bu`on: With this op6on you can create an ad from an exis6ng pin. Try to promote your top performing content. Aﬃlia,on marke,ng We speak of aﬃliate marke6ng when we refer to that adver,sing channel where various web pages (aﬃliate network) make their own commercial space available to companies (adver,sers) that want to carry out adver,sing campaigns for their brand, product or service (aﬃliate program), to earn an income. Unlike SEM models, where the usual contrac6ng models are CPC or CPM, in aﬃliate marke6ng adver6sers only pay for the results obtained, according to the remunera6on contracted with the aﬃliate. In the case of online stores, it is usually by CPA system (pay per sale), although hybrid models between CPC, CPL and CPA can also be used. Aﬃliates have websites with content deﬁned for certain audiences, so they will tend to work with adver6sers who have a link with the public that consumes their content. For example, a women's fashion blog may work with cosme6cs adver6sers, given that their audiences are similar (women concerned about aesthe6cs). That said, there are many ways to work with aﬃlia6on when it comes to formats (banners, email, men6ons, sponsored ar6cles, etc.). All of them are based on the same formula, which is none other than pulng "tagged" links to iden6fy and measure the traﬃc that each aﬃliate brings to the adver6ser, checking if that speciﬁc traﬃc has been converted as s6pulated, to collect the commissions agreed. Speciﬁc so{ware tools for crea6ng our own aﬃliate network are Post Quality Pro, Clickinc or Hashoﬀers, among others. Hiring third-party networks. They are intermediary companies between aﬃliates and adver6sers, who guarantee the aﬃliate the collec6on and the reliability of the measurements, and an extensive catalog segmented according to the needs and objec6ves of the adver6ser. The main aﬃliate networks are: Awin, Tradedoubler, or Tradetracker. Its main advantage is precisely its interna6onal nature, which allows it to reach a certain market with an adequate selec6on of the target of aﬃliates, given its extensie database of interna6onal contacts. E-mail marke,ng Although it seems on the decline due to the rise of other op6ons such as social networks or aﬃliate marke6ng, it is s6ll one of the most used online marke6ng ac6ons in any digital plan. In the case of email marke6ng, we always talk about what is known as permission marke6ng since in order to send shipments it is essen6al to have properly obtained the express consent of the recipient to receive commercial communica6ons. Inﬂuencers Inﬂuencers have become big brand bets. They use brand products, take photographs that they send to the blog and / or their Instagram account and, thus, they manage to inﬂuence the taste of their followers. Each inﬂuencer has a diﬀerent rate. There are those who simply ask to receive the products, and there are those who work with agencies and charge up to thousands of Euros per published photograph, it all depends on the number of followers they have and how famous they are. When choosing the right Inﬂuencers, a number of factors must be taken into account: Number of followers. This number will give us an idea of the relevance and inﬂuence of the prescriber. Number of comments on Instagram photos. It is useless for the inﬂuencer to have many followers if it is a community that does not interact with the images that are sent to their social networks. Therefore, more than the number of followers, it is more important that the prescriber has many comments on each photo or post. Infuencer style. The images and texts that the prescriber publishes on his social network or website must correspond to the values that the brand wishes to transmit. Possible budget: € 500 - € 1000 to publish photos on your blog and Instagram Heepsy of Binﬂuncer are examples of tools designed to facilitate the search for inﬂuencers of companies, through a plaform that allows them to reach the inﬂuencers that best suit the needs of the company or brand. MAIN LOGISTIC STRATEGIES Logis6cs is very important in the e-commerce strategy, it can even be a factor that prevents the sale of certain products, or forces the adapta,on of exis,ng products or even the crea,on of new products, it is very important to deﬁne which products are going to sell in the online store and assess its diﬃculty in delivery. Not least, we have to evaluate reverse logis,cs, a service that deals with the returns that the customer can make. Return rates in e-commerce are considerably higher than in tradi6onal commerce, as the buyer has no contact with the product prior to delivery. The main players in interna6onal logis6cs are tradi6onal transport companies such as DHL, UPS, DTT, etc., which have been developing services adapted to e-commerce. However, new ecommerce players already provide logis6cs services such as Amazon, which has a highly compe66ve logis6cs service, even for companies that do not sell on Amazon. New logis6cs businesses associated with e-commerce have also appeared, such as price buyers or integrated logis6cs services for online stores, such as Packlink, SendCloud, iContainers, Freightos, Ship6mize, Eurosender, Genei, etc. The new trends in e-commerce logis6cs, highly oriented to ﬁnal delivery to the customer (Last Mile Delivery), go through exis6ng oﬀers in the market such as Automa6c Lockers (DHL, Amazon) and collabora6ve economy models for deliveries (Amazon Flex, Uber). LEGAL AND TAXATION ASPECTS A key diﬀerence between the rest of opera6onal aspecs of Ecommerce and regulatory issues is that the la`est are always country (or EU) – speciﬁc, instead of global (like technology plaforms, marke6ng ac6ons, many marketplaces, interna6onal logis6c providers, etc)…..For instance, Electronic commerce is governed in Spain by a series of regula6ons that range from the data protec6on law to the legisla6on on distance selling, the general contrac6ng condi6ons, electronic invoicing and guarantees for consumer goods. One of the most important was the transposi6on into the Spanish legal system of Direc6ve 2011/83 / EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on consumer rights. With this reform, the distance selling right of the Member States was harmonized, laying the founda6ons for the crea6on of an internal market for electronic commerce throughout the European Union. For prac6cal purposes, some of the main obliga6ons of stores that operate online are: Informa,on requirements in a distance contract: provide the consumer, in a clear and understandable way, the main characteris6cs of the goods and services object of the contract, their iden6ty (company name, address, etc.), the ﬁnal total price of the product (all inclusive); Right of withdrawal: the consumer has a period of 14 days to exercise this right and for the merchant to proceed with the refund Payments: the merchant must obtain the express consent of the consumer for any addi6onal payment to the agreed remunera6on Delivery ,mes: deliver the goods purchased within a maximum period of 30 calendar days. Unsolicited shipments: It is forbidden to send and supply the consumer and user of unsolicited goods or services that include a payment claim. Warranty: All consumer goods have a free warranty for a period of two years. To open an eCommerce you have to make sure you meet a series of requirements so that all your opera6ons are within the law: o Legal informa,on: Law of services of the informa6on society and electronic commerce. This law includes aspects about how the value of the products should be shown, what period of returns the company contemplates, the imposi6on of pulng a dissent form for users or the exposure of the company's data publicly, among other obliga6ons. o Cookies policy: the banner that appears every 6me we enter a page is mandatory. Its purpose is that the user accepts the cookie policy of a web page, in order to consent to the collec6on of user data about their browsing habits. o GDPR (General Data Protec,on Regula,on): a couple of years ago this law was in the conversa6ons of all businessmen. Its approval required companies to regulate the processing of personal data to guarantee their protec6on and privacy. o Issuance of invoices: online companies can oﬀer an electronic invoice for purchases made with the VAT rate that corresponds to the transac6on carried out, since they have the same legal validity as physical ones. PAYMENT METHODS It is in B2C e-commerce models where the means of payment acquire a fundamental nature, as the click of "Place order" is the authen6c "moment of truth" and the deﬁni6ve step in which a website, un6l that moment, focused to communica6on, it becomes a transac6onal business. If the sale is interna6onal, the company must adapt to the preferences of its buyers, who may be used to paying through a local means of payment, such as the Dutch I-Deal, the Brazilian Pix or the Chinese Alipay (which, for example, it represents 60% in a market where Visa and Mastercard have only a 2% share in online transac6ons). Globally, the preferred payment methods are already digital wallets, which have been gaining in importance rela6ve to tradi6onal bank cards. Source: Sta6sta In La6n America, for example, the payments market is highly concentrated in Brazil and Mexico, which represent 73% of online payments on the con6nent, with a strong presence of bank cards. In Brazil, the presence of a local payment method such as Pix stands out, as well as a strong predominance of deferred payment in online purchases. In Asian markets, we are witnessing a distribu6on dominated by local means of payment, with a special predominance of Alipay, the payment system of the Alibaba group. The low presence of “tradi6onal players” in the banking market is signiﬁcant in the Chinese market, which shows the strength of Internet players in a market as cri6cal for the development of the digital economy as that of payment methods. Likewise, the irrup6on of WeChat Pay as a key element in TenPay's strategy represents ﬁerce compe66on to the tradi6onal dominance of Alipay in the world of Chinese online payments. Credit / debit card (payment gateway or virtual POS): it is the most common electronic payment system accepted today given the widespread use of credit / debit cards. It is the most common both na6onally and interna6onally, due to the universality of the cards it accepts (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, etc.). The virtual POS service is provided by banks, with a commission. PayPal: is the most advanced and most widely used online payment “alterna6ve” system at an interna6onal level, present in more than 190 countries and with more than 250 million users. It was acquired by eBay in 2002 and although ini6ally it was mandatory to have a "PayPal" account to be able to make payments, today it works as a true virtual POS, where you can pay with a credit or debit card without the need for said account, oﬀering a very complete and specialized service. New trends: the market for payment methods is one of the most dynamic and where a greater posi6oning of all companies with interests in the online market is being observed: “pure players”, banks, telcos, etc. Apart from the existence of numerous alterna6ve players seeking to communicate their diﬀeren6al value proposi6on, the largest in the sector have their own payment models that are progressively bringing them to the market: Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Pay with Square are examples of this bet. CUSTOMER SERVICE Customer service begins during the process of selling the products or services. It starts the moment we include promises about our products and services on our website. Every promise we make about the quality of the products, prices, return policies, delivery 6mes, etc., we must be able to fulﬁll, because, if not, the work to be done when an error occurs will be much more diﬃcult and expensive to do. manage. There will always be errors in logis6cs and opera6ons management, the big diﬀerence will be marked by the way we manage these incidents. The customer service tools start from tradi6onal forms of contact such as telephone, email, web form and move towards more modern tools such as chat, social networks and chatbots with ar6ﬁcial intelligence. The most important cost comes from the Human Resources necessary to cover the diversity of hours and languages available for service in interna,onal setngs. The customer service department is our window to the outside and it must be equipped with the tools that allow it to interact with customers, but we also have to properly dimension the costs that this exposure implies to customers with diﬀerent customs, languages and 6me zones.. Automa6on of customer service, especially through ar6ﬁcial intelligence technologies, has evolved signiﬁcantly. Ar6ﬁcial intelligence will enable the automa6on and personaliza6on of many e-commerce tasks. The advantages of Ar,ﬁcial Intelligence for the company are varied: Greater employee satisfaction, avoiding repetitive and cumbersome processes, leaving them in the hands of bots (although it is possible to replace them in the future). Reduction of errors, avoiding the human factor. Better customer service, managing possible doubts or incidents more quickly. Greater speed and efficiency in procedures, processes produce immediate results. Creation of new profitability opportunities thanks to a better relationship with the client. Competitive differentiation thanks to the best quality of products and services. Above all, cost savings. At present, any technological plaform allows us from the integra6on of a customer service chat to the use of a social network such as Twi`er to provide services that interact with the client, in a cost structure generally associated with monthly fees and price ranges (for average) of between 30 and 100 euros per month. Companies like Iadvize, Zendesk and Amazon Connect oﬀer very sophis6cated technology solu6ons with remunera6on schemes generally based on the traﬃc generated on the plaform. Besides Amazon Connect, there are other CRM solu6ons available in the market, such as: Smartsupp, WebCentrix, Salesforce, Bimyou.

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