How To Build Locations-Based Storefronts For Your Global Marketplace

Thinking of launching your global marketplace? Want to unlock new growth opportunities for your multi-product brand? 

Eager to beat your competition by becoming your customers’ fave brand across geographies? 

Wonderful idea indeed!

Taking your enterprise brand to global markets is the best thing you can do for your business. Here is why:

Global cross border ecommerce trends

Let's look at the trends around cross border ecommerce.

• 35% of consumers buy on sites based outside their country, up from 26% in 2014

• 67% of global cross-border online buyers are buying because of lower prices outside of their own country

• ~4X growth in global cross border ecommerce market value from 2019 to 2026

• $2.25 trillion is the expected value of the cross-border e-commerce market by 2026

• 11.71% is the estimated CAGR of the cross-border logistics market during 2022-2026

Source: Statista

Figures explicitly indicate the possibilities that lie ahead for your global ecommerce brand. To capitalize on the idea you need an online marketplace that is a few notches above the rest. 

Benefits of location-based global Multi Vendor Marketplace

Wonder how to build a global marketplace that is just the right fit for customers across different geographies? Well, you have a solution - go for a location-based marketplace website. 

But why multi-store setup? 

Let us validate the idea by listing the perks of having location-based multiple stores. Here they are: 

• Builds customized storefronts with localization

• Offers a low cost yet highly targeted marketing opportunity

• Helps understand customer preferences better

• Helps offer tailor-made deals and shopping experience

• Offers an easy and simple shopping experience

• Higher sales with local proximity

• Offers quick service for your customers 

• Helps measure results quickly and accurately

• Easy to add relevant products with multiple departments and verticals

• Helps expand to new geographical territories 

Now that we have established the importance of a multi store business model with location-based stores for your global marketplace.

How to launch location based stores for your global online marketplace

Well now that you have decided to build your global marketplace website, it is time to plan and implement various aspects that will differentiate your brand from the other players in the market.  The first step would be to look for a powerful ecommerce platform that can single handedly deal with your day to day as well as future needs.

Once you have a future-ready marketplace solution with multi-store capabilities, start rolling out your location based stores as below:

1. Create a storefront for each location

The first step towards developing a locations based multi store marketplace has to be creating storefronts for each location.Once you have decided on the locations you want to expand your enterprise business to, the very next step would be to create those location specific stores. For example, if you are planning to expand in the UK, India and Australia, you need to create three different stores that are localized for the given location.

StoreHippo lets you build mobile ready sub-stores right from the dashboard and allows you to create different URLs for each sub-store. Supposedly you own an online marketplace as xyzstore.com, with StoreHippo you can create sub-stores like india.xyzstore.com for India, uk.xyzstore.com for UK and au.xyzstore.com for Australia. 

2. Design different themes for each sub store

Each of your sub-stores should look and feel unique, right? Suppose your apparel sub-store for India has the look and feel of the Diwali festival around the month of Diwali, the same design and theme can’t be applicable to your UK and Australia stores. These stores around the same time might do well by displaying Halloween and pre-Christmas themes. 

With StoreHippo you can easily design a different look and feel for each of your stores on your location-based multi-vendor marketplace . The drag-and-drop feature from the rich design themes library lets you choose and create designs easily and quickly. The look of your website can be completely changed within minutes, with no coding required. You can also save your themes and designs to be used later in just one click. StoreHippo theme designer also enables brands to play between designs and create multiple design variables for your storefront.   

3. Build a unique catalogue for each sub-store

When we talk about multiple stores based on multiple locations, a unique product catalogue for each of the sub-stores goes without saying. Suppose your online marketplace sells wedding garments. Will a bridal red lehenga work be a good product choice for UK and Australia markets? How popular will a white wedding gown be in the Indian markets?

Well, it's quite evident that different markets need completely diverse catalogues.

Sounds like a tedious job? What if we say it's not? 

With StoreHippo you can bulk import and export all your products using CSV and then allot products to each sub-store right from the common central admin dashboard.  What could have taken hours of manual effort is sorted in minutes with Storehippo automated order management solutions.

4. Build your mobile presence

Ecommerce is drastically shifting towards m commerce. 80% of online orders come through the mobile channel. Conversion rates from mobile apps are 3x higher than mobile websites. Well, with such insights it's only imperative for you to build your mobile-ready stores as well as apps for your global marketplace so your customers can order anywhere anytime. 

StoreHippo is built grounds-up on the mobile-first principle. It comes with a built-in mobile apps builder that can create sub-store-specific apps as well. All stores and sub-stores built on StoreHippo are PWAs. This means these stores work like native apps when opened in a browser. These hybrid apps powered by StoreHippo run seamlessly on all devices and allow your online marketplace to serve customers even in distant areas where internet connectivity is not so fast. Isn’t this the best way to reach fast-growing ecommerce markets internationally? It sure is! 

5. Talk in the language your customers love

75% of worldwide consumers prefer to buy from websites that sell and communicate in their native language. We are sure you would want to place your enterprise business in the market as a brand that not only caters to the demands of its customers but also forms a strong bond with its buyers. 

By converting your global marketplace into multiple languages you not only make buying easier for your international customers but you also reap SEO benefits that come with multilingual content. StoreHippo offers built-in multilingual solutions wherein marketplace brands can create language specific sub-stores. StoreHippo also supports multiple languages in mobile apps, thus making it easier for global marketplace brands to connect with its buyers.

6. Set up location based promotions 

Once you have set up your multi-location sub-stores and brushed up the design, it's time to start your marketing. While, there might be multiple ways to promote your online marketplace and its location-based stores, targeted marketing is still one of the most potent techniques. With targeted marketing, your marketplace brand can devise different strategies that are aligned with the requirements of diverse audience segments in different geographies you want to expand to. 

To do so, you need to identify customer behavior, the channel they use for online shopping, the special days/occasions they shop on, the type of deals they redeem etc. Based on these  data-driven insights, you can then acquire new customers and increase your sales, market reach etc. 

StoreHippo’s simplified marketing tools give you a variety of options to plan your marketing strategies for different geolocations. The powerful discount engine and coupon codes feature help you roll out offers, deals and discounts suited for diverse audience segments in a few simple steps. You can engage your global marketplace’s customers in real-time by sending personalized push notifications or connecting with buyers through live chat and chatbots.  You can also leverage the built-in SEO features to grow your organic traffic and rank higher on SERPs. 

7. Offer a seamless checkout flow 

When international customers land on your online marketplace to make a purchase, they are not only looking for products but also a frictionless checkout process and the freedom to pay in their preferred currency. A complex or multi-step checkout flow can be the top contributor to increased number of abandoned carts, impeding your growth. 

To ensure customers keep coming in droves to your global marketplace you need to make payments smooth and quick. While offering multiple payment channels is one way to go about it, helping your international customers pay in multiple currencies is a sure shot way to set your cash counters ringing. By setting up different currencies on the sub-stores of your online marketplace, you can become a brand your customers love and promote by word of mouth.

StoreHippo enables international marketplaces to implement multi-currency payment options for your multi-store global marketplace. You can let your customers choose from a variety of payment options like debit/credit cards, COD, store credit, mobile wallet, net banking, payment gateway integrations etc. when you use one or more of 60+ integrated payment options.  

Marketplaces powered by StoreHippo can sell across the globe by optimizing prices in multiple currencies. You can also choose between automatic location-based and automatic store-based currency switches, so your customers are not burdened with additional exchange rate charges. For example, an IP address exploring your sub-store in Australia will see your rates in AUD or your customers can manually choose the designated store with their preferred currency.    

8. Streamline global logistics 

When you expand your online marketplace globally, you also need to partner with local vendors and logistics providers to stay on top of the game. Ensuring seamless and fast deliveries go a long way in building customer trust and loyalty. For this, you need to tie up with different shipping partners for each location-specific store. Your logistics providers should have the experience and expertise of offering fulfilment services for the specific geography.

Sounds like a tough nut to crack, right?

But with StoreHippo, you can keep all these worries aside and focus on developing your business. You can simply choose the best fitting solution from the 30+ international logistics partners integrated on the platform or integrate your custom global shipping provider easily. With different logistics partners for each location-based store on your global marketplace, you can optimize the shipping costs, ensure quick deliveries and minimize the incidence of unhappy customers.

9. Hassle-free Inventory and order management 

A chaotic online marketplace with poor site navigation and search, incomplete product information, not updated information on available stock etc. is a recipe for disaster. It is imperative for marketplace brands to maintain inventories and orders systematically. But, with multiple stores and multiple stocks/inventories to manage, human errors and stock level discrepancies are bound to happen. 

To avoid chaos in a global marketplace with multiple-location-based stores and inventory, it becomes imperative to have a well-rounded order and inventory management system. 

StoreHippo comes with a built-in OMS (ORDER Management System) that allows advanced, automated, and simplified order processing to streamline your operations and inventory planning. 

The end-to-end order management system saves time and makes the processes faster in your global marketplace. Right from order fulfilment to return management, from integrated shipping solutions to refund and invoice support, from abandoned cart follow-up to store credits, everything is taken care of with StoreHippo’s advanced order and inventory management solutions.

10. Offer customizations and personalizations

It is crucial for every enterprise online marketplace to think out of the box to stay ahead in the industry. And today customization is not a choice anymore, it is the elementary step towards building your phygital presence. When you build your global marketplace with multi store ecommerce set up, it becomes imperative to offer personalized experiences to your customers based on their cultural nuances, buying habits and preferences.  

In this era of hyper-personalisation, tailor-made personalisations are the differentiators that can create a niche for your brand. When you are building your global marketplace with location-specific sub-stores, the need for multi-layered personalisation grows manifold. And to implement these personalizations and customizations you need a powerful ecommerce solution that gives you the right tools and technologies to implement these changes.

Online marketplaces powered by StoreHippo’s headless and MACH architecture give better creative control to the marketers and developers. Global brands can integrate with the best-in-breed software to implement hyper-personalization for buyers from different geographies. Each sub-store can have its own third party software and service providers to take personalization to the next level.  

Key takeaway

Well, the benefits to building a location based multi store online marketplace are many. To sum it up, higher customer engagement, a smooth management process of the orders and inventories, simple and easy shopping and as a result better sales! 

With StoreHippo online marketplace solutions, you get 300+ built in tools and features that help you build next-gen global marketplaces with location based sub-stores. What’s even more interesting is that you can go on adding any number of sub-stores based on location or any other criteria like product lines, language, customer segment etc. 

Pivoting to a new hybrid business model is also easy as StoreHippo supports a variety of business models like B2B, D2C, B2C etc. With a gamut of marketing tools, built in tax engine, custom forms etc. global marketplace brands can run their business seamlessly and expand to new geolocations without any hassle.

Ready to embark on an exciting journey by launching your global marketplace? Get started in no time by starting your 14-day free trial right away.