International Catalogue Sales is a great opportunity for US Economy. For several years US Product through catalog, have ruled international market. Even today, US products are in high demand and international buyers are willing to pay premium price for US Products. Here we will discuss various channels to market products and some ideas on how to minimize online payment and other Risk that might occur during international sales.

1.    Reaching International Buyers:  English is widely spoken, so initial efforts should be put into reaching English Speaking customers worldwide, this could be done through search engine, portal sides, local magazine, Radio and TV Media, local ezine, local bloggers and more

2.    Setting up local customer support with local phone directing to main support number
in US or contract local call center to provide sales and support.

3.    Listing into local directories and search engine.

4.    Signing up an agreement with local distributor to represent you locally.

5.    Setting up regional sales manager to facilitate country and city based sales.

6.    Add language translation and payment option in different currency

7.    Promote sites in various International and local B2B and Trade Show websites

These are some of the quick action that small businesses could take to get the sales net expanded. Let’s study few best practices on how to reach international clientele.

1.    Many US magazine manages their subscriptions through their presence in Amsterdam to distribute their magazine to Europe and Asia, with this setup, magazine are effectively and economically distributed and returned for bad address or some other reason, not only this, the Amsterdam based distribution company also manages subscription payment status and send them invoice at the end of subscription period.

2.    Another option is to have agreement with local vendor who imports similar product / services, this potential small investor could be reached through international or local exhibition and direct contacts.

Let’s talk few points on how to mitigate risk

1.    There are different level of risk depends on the business model, this risk may involved during transaction and/or shipping Payment risk involved fraud cards or chances of charge back. How to get safe from such transaction, first of all filter all those countries that could bring high level of transactional risk, secondly call those individual to verify that they are the rightful owner of the card and get a scan copy of card and a sign agreement of sales.

Second level of risk is of shipping fraud, in order to get secured with such risk, It is always advisable to send the product/services to the address mentioned on the credit card, secondly ask the courier to get a photo verification ID and a signature of receipt and finally check the address on the web if it is a valid customer

2.    There can be other type risk, if a representative has been appointed, it is always recommended to sign an agreement with local formalities, US law will not apply to Cambodia law and an agreement bounding according to local law must be prepared.
The above is a comprehensive experience shared – there could be many other best practices to be explored.