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Global Payment Perspectives: Key Considerations that Can Make or Break Your POS Software Global Expansion – Part 1

Global Payment Perspectives: Key Considerations that Can Make or Break Your POS Software Global Expansion – Part 1 photo

We recently held a webinar on Constellation Payments’ global payment capabilities. And while it’s extremely exciting to provide our partners with the opportunity to expand into different markets, we encourage our partners to be aware of the challenges they may face when expanding. And encourage them to have a plan to overcome those challenges.

Our last post covered the very first step in taking your POS software to international markets. It’s also extremely important to review this list of key considerations before moving forward into foreign markets.

Native Language Web Experience

If your product is marketed on the web or sold directly over the web, you’ll want to consider the native language web experience of your prospective audience. There is a large amount of evidence showing that you’ll get more sales and convert more leads from your site if there’s a native language version of your website in the regions you serve. For example, if you provide a product or service in Mexico, a Spanish version of your site is strongly advised.

Native Language Customer Support

What kind of inbound calls do you get today? Presumably you’re going to get similar calls from your international clients. How are you going to handle that? Should you get a third-party to handle support calls on your behalf? If not, should you consider online only, text-based support and judicious use of translation software? Knowing how you’re going to provide customer support is critically important.

Purchasing in Native Currency

This is very important because cart abandonment in ecommerce is a big issue. Put yourself in the shoes of a foreign consumer.

Say you were doing a search for a product or service you are interested in buying, and came upon a website written completely in Russian. You don’t speak Russian or understand Russian currency exchange, and now you’re deciding whether to hit the final button to pay with your credit card and make the purchase. Would you be OK with it? Would you be at ease?

Most people would be much more comfortable to read a webpage in their native language and pay in their currency. They don’t have to worry: “Did I get that exchange wrong? Am I overpaying?

13% of all cart abandonment in 2016 was due to prices not being presented in native currency. It’s important to present native currency on the marketing side and on the ecommerce side when it comes to the shopping cart experience.

Cash Flow Considerations

Consider native financial regulations. In North America, for example, funding happens pretty quickly. We’ve got a very robust internet backbone and robust financial system. Merchant processing and direct debit processing happens relatively quickly compared to the rest of the world.

On the other hand, you may be doing business in a foreign country where there’s a 10-15-day delay between purchase and funding into your account. Understanding those effects on your business is important so that you can make sure you have enough cash flow to float during that time.

No doubt this is a lot to take in. We’ll leave you with these four considerations and wrap up the list in our next post. If you have questions about our global payment capabilities or specific countries, payment principles, or regional differences regarding cash flow timing, please call us at 888.244.7060.

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