In 2010 BRIC became BRICS due to the inclusion of South Africa however in this presentation I’ve decided to focus on just the big 4.

Fruugo is a global marketplace who retail week recently called and “eBay-in-the-making”.

As Chief Marketing Officer I’m responsible for all marketing activities globally over 23 countries. We cover all 4 corners of the world from America to Australia to Russia to Europe to South Africa. Shoppers from around the globe can read our site in 10 languages and pay in 11 currencies using various local payment methods.

Launching an e-commerce site in a new territory is challenging but rewarding.

Service- Such as providing customer service in multiple languages

Technology- Such as page load time across the globe

Logistics- Such as direct injection, forward picking, customs, returns, tracking etc …

Marketing- Such local PPC, real time bidding, display etc …

As you can see, there are many challenges to overcome but challenges worth facing non the less.

Brazil is a $20b e-commerce market. Russia 13b, India 16b and China is a whopping $300b. That’s a $349b pie.

How much of that pie do you have today?

Fruugo currently trade in Russia and also trading in South Africa which I’ve left of the presentation.

As I described on the last slide, there are 4 key challenges for these 4 markets. I’m going to give you a whistle stop tour of these markets from the perspective of a marketer. I’ll cover 4 key areas.

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References:

http://www.thepaypers.com/e-commerce/brazil-to-become-a-great-e-commerce-market/754014-25http://www.geektime.com/2014/04/27/russian-ecommerce-valued-at-13-4b-small-but-not-too-shabby/http://www.assocham.org/prels/shownews.php?id=4315 http://ventureburn.com/2014/01/india-spent-us16-billion-online-in-2013-up-88-from-2012/http://blogs.forrester.com/kelland_willis/14-01-27-chinas_online_retail_sales_passed_300_billion_in_2013

Payment methodsSocial MediaSearch EnginesAnd other key considerations before jumping into those markets.

First up …

Payment Methods.

This NEEDS to be a vital part of your localisation strategy. Having the right payment methods could be the difference between failure and success.

The top 4 payment methods in Brazil are:

1. Local cards such as Elo, Cabel, Hipercard and Aura2. International Cards like VISA, Mastercard etc …

Cards make up 69% of online payments market. The market share of card payments are: 70% Local and 30% International. So, accepting local cards is very important.Each international transaction is converted to USD then BRL. There is a 5% exchange rate+ 6.38% Financial Transactions Tax (IOF).

3. Boleto Bancario – is a ‘pay by cash’ method which essentially pre-fills a payment slip you take to a bank. This represents 24% of online payments.4. Online debit, such as Paypal (4%)

Cash on delivery is around 3% market share.

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References:

http://www.allpago.com/brazilian-payment-methods/

The top 4 payment methods in Russia are:

1. Cash on delivery, which makes up 80% of online transactions and is the most popular payment method. This is changing though as e-wallets are becoming more popular. It’s worth noting that Ozon.ru are the market leaders for COD.

2. Yandex Money3. QIWI is essentially a VISA wallet4. Paypal

TNS Surveyed 2800 people asking which online payment methods they use. The results were:

Yandex.Money 22%Qiwi 21%WebMoney 19%PayPal 14%Money Mail.ru 6%Others 18%

Note that Internet banking is unpopular and Credit/debit cards are generally not trusted by Russian shoppers and merchants.

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References:

http://www.thepaypers.com/payment-methods/RussianFederation/18http://akado.fi/2014/05/yandex-money-most-popular-in-russia/http://www.demnet.eu/russian-ecommerce-payments-non-residents/

The top 4 payment methods in India are:

1. Netbanking (paying directly by bank) 44% (Axis, Corporation Bank, Allahabad, HDFC)2. Debit Cards 32%2. Credit Cards 21%4. Others 3% (which includes Cash on delivery, Mobile payments and PayPal)

One payment method you should watch out for us RuPay as it’s highly disruptive to the likes of VISA and MasterCard. It’s estimated that some 10,000 e-commerce sites now accept RuPay.

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References:

http://www.dazeinfo.com/2014/05/25/digital-payment-industry-india-reached-inr-85800-2013-net-banking-still-favourite/http://www.digitalriverpayments.com/articles/full/entering-india-online-payments-and-beyond

The top 4 payment methods in China are:

1. Alipay (holds the shoppers payment in escrow to protect the buyer)2. Tenpay (very similar to PayPal)3. Union pay (a flexible card which allows you to pay now or later)4. 99Bill (a mobile focused payment method)

Alipay 48.7%Tenpay 19.4%Union Pay 11.2%99Bill 6.7%CPNA 5.8% YeePay 3.4%IPS 2.9%Others 1.9%

Surprisingly, only 1 in 5 have a credit card and actually, those who do have a card don’t like to use it to pay online.

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References:

http://chineseseoshifu.com/blog/online-payment-methods-china.htmlhttp://ec.iresearch.cn/e-payment/20140401/229416.shtml

Search

As we know, Search Engines drive traffic, either organic or paid. So, you need to be aware of which search engines are important in each market. Lets take a look

The top 4 search engines in Brazil are:

1. Google Brasil 82.08% (Google.com 7.25%)2. Bing Brasil 5.32%3. Ask Brasil 3.86%4. Yahoo! Brasil 0.71%

Others 0.78% (which includes Clic RBS)

In short, Google dominate!

Google Shopping is available in Brazil, however:

- Products must be listed in Portuguese.- Product landing pages must be in Portuguese.- Product prices must be listed in Brazilian reals (BRL)

Google shopping is an excellent channel for Fruugo so I highly recommend it.

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References:

http://www.telecompaper.com/news/google-takes-89-of-search-engine-market-in-brazil

The top 4 search engines in Russia are:

1. Yandex 59.6%2. Google 25.7%3. Search.Mail.ru 9.1%4. Rambler 1.4%

Yandex dominates in Russia. Yandex have various paid offerings such as:

- Search Ads- Advertising Network (contextual - weather, news, traffic etc…)- Display Ads- Mobile Ads- Yandex.Market (similar to Google's PLA)

There are also many excellent supply side platforms such as ADFOX, AdRiver and Begun. All worth considering.

Google Shopping is also available in Russia too, but remember:

- Products must be listed in Russian.- Product landing pages must be in Russian.- Product prices must be listed in Russian roubles (RUB)

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References:

http://www.ginzametrics.com/blog/seo-and-the-search-engine-market-in-russia/

The top 4 search engines in India are:

1. Google2. Yahoo3. Bing4. Others

If you thought Google’s market share in Brazil was impressive.

Google’s market share in India is 97.5%!!! Enough said. Google Shopping is available, but:

- Products must be listed in English.- Product landing pages must be in English.- Product prices must be listed in Indian rupees (INR)

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References:

http://www.business-standard.com/article/technology/google-search-retains-lead-with-97-share-112051600078_1.htmlhttp://www.academia.edu/5398527/Key_Insights_and_Digital_Trends_Shaping_the_Indian_Online_Space_Key_Insights_and_Digital_Trends_Shaping_the_Indian_Online_Space

The top 4 search engines in China are:

1. Baidu 58.76%2. 360 Search 25.41%3. Sogou 12.58%4. Google 1.34%

Baidu do:

- PPC (Similar to AdWords)- Brand based ads (Very prominent and highly targeted)- Contextual (across it’s various affiliate networks)- Display

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References:

http://chineseseoshifu.com/blog/top-5-chinese-search-engines.htmlhttp://engine.data.cnzz.com

Social Media.

It’s becoming more and more important that eTailers engage with their shoppers through various channels including social media. Lets take a look at the landscape across the BRIC countries.

The top 4 social media sites in Brazil are:

1. Facebook 73.5%2. YouTube 16.34%3. Badoo 1.2% (which is va dating site)4. Google+ 1.15%

2 others which are worth a mention are orkut (which is owned now by Google), and Bate-papo (known for live chat, run by an ISP called UOL).

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References:

http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Badoo-Becomes-No-3-Social-Network-Brazil/1010436

The top 4 social media sites in Russia are:

1. Vkontakte (47m users) – very similar to Facebook and attracts a younger audience 2. Odnoklassniki (40m users) – the ‘friends reunited’ of Russia and attracts a slightly older audience (over 35% of its users fall in the 35 to 44 age range)3. Facebook (12.8m users)4. Twitter (7.18m users) – gained excellent attention at the Winter Olympics

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References:

https://www.2checkout.com/blog/article/understanding-russian-social-media-vkontakte-odnoklassnikihttp://voiceofrussia.com/2013_10_28/Vkontakte-social-network-an-absolute-market-leader-in-Russia-8165/http://www.russiansearchtips.com/tag/twitter-in-russia/

The top 4 social media sites in India are:

1. Facebook 100m2. Twitter 33m3. Google+ 22m4. Tumber 19m

India have really taking to social recently, it recent helped shape the Indian election.

Modi (who won the election) has over four million followers on Twitter and over 14 million “Likes” on Facebook – making him the second-most-liked politician on Facebook, coming in second to Obama.

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References:

http://www.slideshare.net/iibea/digital-statistics-2014-india

The top 4 social media sites in China are:

1. WeChat (600m) – instant messaging app2. Youku/Tudou (450m) – The YouTube of China. The Chineese LOVE online videos3. RenRen (210m) – similar to facebook4. Weibo (130m) – a hybrid of twitter and facebook

It’s worth noting that Douban (a ratings and product recommendation social network) have 82m users.

China’s social-media users are not only more active than those of any other country but also, in more than 80 percent of all cases, have multiple social-media accounts, primarily with local players (compared with just 39 percent in Japan).

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References:

http://maximizesocialbusiness.com/5-top-social-media-networks-china-12918/http://technode.com/2013/10/24/wechat-reportedly-surpassed-600-million-users/http://thenextweb.com/asia/2014/05/23/mobile-video-is-hot-in-china-youku-tudou-reveals-it-has-reached-400m-daily-mobile-video-views/http://www.chinainternetwatch.com/7526/renren-2014q1/http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/10/business/china-weibo-user-base/http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/863000.shtml

Considerations….

Before you rush off and plan your launch into Brazil, Russia, India and China. Consider these key points.

Brazilians spend more than 27 hours per month online compared to the global average of 24.7 hours. I give Brazil a 4/5 desirability rating.

Russian online consumers are highly educated and technologically savvy. I give Russia a 3/5 desirability rating.

India have an underdeveloped physical delivery infrastructure and low population density which makes for the highest logistics costs in the world. I give India a 2/5 desirability rating.

China, it’s a legal requirement for websites to obtain an ‘ICP License’. You can’t advertise on Baidu without it and if you don’t register an ICP License you may find yourself from being blacklisted by the great firewall of China. In order to get a license you need a Chinese company or a legal ‘joint Venture’ with a Chinese company. Either way, the entry costs are very high. Despite this, I give China a 5/5 desirability rating.

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References:

http://www.business2community.com/finance/emerging-markets-brazil-ecommerce-statistics-challenges-0706969#ZLrc5TsjoHGkmZ44.99http://www.borderfree.com/files/insights/Borderfree-RU-Report-Jan2014.pdfhttp://www.borderfree.com/files/insights/Borderfree-IN-Report-Feb2014.pdfhttp://achang.com/blog/icp-license-regulation-in-china-what-you-need-to-know/http://wenku.baidu.com/view/6c9671f8c8d376eeaeaa31adhttp://moz.com/community/q/what-are-baidu-s-top-ranking-factorshttp://blog.btrax.com/en/2011/09/23/10-steps-for-successful-ecommerce-in-china/http://www.ecritel.cn/ICP-Regulations-in-China.htmlhttp://www.pathtochina.com/regcompany.htm

4 companies you should look at as excellent examples of successful eTailers in these markets.

1. B2W Digital in Brazil2. Ulmart in Russia3. Flipkart in India4. JD.com in China

Although it’s essential you learn from the leaders, it’s important to ‘think big, but start small’.

I have an interactive illustration for you.

Any new service, such as your e-commerce site in a new country, has an adoption curve.

This is called the ‘Diffusions of innovation’.

Your very first customers are your innovators and early adopters. They don’t care much about a highly polished offering. Eric Ries, who wrote ‘The Lean Start-up’, put it like this:

“Early adopters are suspicious of something that is too polished: if it's ready for everyone to adopt, how much advantage can one get by being early?”

When embarking on trading in new territories bear that in mind. If your site is targeted towards the late majority, who will only adopt when there is social proof that others are adopting, then your innovators and early adopters won’t see much advantage of being early.

Fruugo are on a mission to bring the worlds products to the worlds shoppers.

Retail Week said we’re the “next big thing” and we’re determined to exceed all expectations. We’re soon to launch a new site design which will be fully responsive and we’re launching in new territories too.

We’ve learnt through experience not to launch each territory with a big bang but to launch quietly, measure and learn. I highly recommend you do the same and apply a scientific and experimentation approach before putting your budgets, resources and reputations on the line.