Looking to expand your business into the EU? In this episode, Andy Hooper joins Matt to discuss how to make the most of your expansion strategy and tips for succeeding in new markets.

ABOUT ANDY

Andy is the CEO of Global E-Commerce Experts, has been successfully expanding e-commerce brands into new markets for over 15 years. An accomplished specialist in e-commerce, Andy now works with companies around the world providing comprehensive gateways and solutions to new markets, especially US-based organizations transitioning into Europe. Starting from the ground up, Andy has carved out a niche inspired by his own experience and success of growing an organization’s profits through e-commerce. With an infectious energy for success, Andy leads a team of professionals in all aspects of e-commerce. With fulfillment centers in the UK & EU, the Global E-Commerce team provides hassle-free end-to-end solutions that have helped 1000’s of sellers capitalize on the multi-billion dollar UK & EU markets. When not working, Andy can often be found enjoying sailing, cycling, and kayaking with his friends and family on England’s south coast.

Here’s a summary of the great stuff that we cover in this show:

• Global E-Commerce Experts essentially started by solving the problem for overseas sellers expanding into Europe. They worked with around 2000 clients that they’ve expanded, and doing that across lots of different services, be it compliance, or logistics or account management, they came up with a pathway looking at what successful clients were doing and what the data was telling them, bridging that gap to make it easy.
• Andy has developed seven basic steps for a success pathway to expand into Europe - market research, compliance, marketplace, 3PL, promote products, website and growth.
• Market research is all about understanding the size of the market, and that your products are relevant to be sold in those areas and product sourcing. Compliance comprises of product and business compliance aspects. Marketplace is about identifying what's the best marketplace for you to launch on. 3PL or a third-party logistics operation is required to store, fulfil, rework, or return your goods. To promote your products, you need to have a great marketing strategy that generates traffic. If you get switched off from a marketplace, you need to be able to sell your products somewhere and so it’s essential to build your own website, which would allow you not just to sell in your own country but anywhere. Finally, growth or scale is about identifying what additional marketplaces you can sell on to capitalise on everything you're doing to take it to the next level.

Enjoying listening to our conversation about EU expansion:-)

For complete show notes, transcript and links to our guest, check out our website: www.ecommerce-podcast.com.