Increasing International Conversions

any good ideas that have proven successful?

[wolfgang]

We've been doing fairly well in this area, but know we can do better. Our site is in English only, but we'd like to increase sales in Japan and Western Europe. We will not warehouse in foreign countries, so shipping and customs fees are a part of the process. Any ideas regarding checkout, help pages, etc. would be appreciated.

[physics]

Consider putting
"We ship to all US States and Internationally"
clearly on your product pages if you don't have this already. This way people don't feel like they're wasting their time when they click the 'add to cart' button.

[pmkpmk]

Forget Japan, unless you are prepared to hire a Japanese person and/or (preferably "and") open an office in Japan. Their (web-)culture is so completely different from ours, that you can't successfully do webpages which might appeal to a Japanese person.

Unless your product is really unique, you simply don't stand a chance.

[wolfgang]

Japan is already our second highest grossing foreign country, right behind the U.K. They also are phenomenally loyal, comprising much repeat purchasing. I believe I know how to drive traffic from Japan now, but I'd like to ensure that we're doing everything we can to convert these visitors. (yes, we have really unique products)

[pmkpmk]

We have unique products, and we managed to find a great partner over there. What you say about loyalty, continuity etc. is very true. Our partner got promoted and now heads a different division. The "new guy" simply did not get what it was all about. Our sales plummeted. Japan being our #2 too, is now not anymore in the top ten. Other "tiger states" have taken its place. I still think it all comes down to personality.

[wolfgang]

Have you done any mobile marketing? We tried a big banner campaign last summer, which was a bust. And we drove traffic to a Japanese version of our homepage and provided Japanese language help pages, faq, etc. We had traffic; very poor conversions from banners.