3 Fatal Mistakes: Why 90% of Overseas Website Building Fails—and How We Solve Them

Amid the wave of overseas market expansion, more and more businesses are choosing to build overseas websites to begin their overseas journeys. Unfortunately, 90% of these businesses fail due to various issues. Upon deeper inspection, the three fatal mistakes are the lack of time zone services, legal compliance issues (such as GDPR), and payment fragmentation. Our comprehensive risk control system effectively avoids these pitfalls, ensuring the success of your overseas website building.

Time zone differences are an unavoidable factor in overseas business operations. Many businesses overlook the importance of time zone services when building overseas websites, resulting in unanswered customer inquiries and delayed order processing, ultimately leading to significant loss of business opportunities.

An electronics sales company targeted the European and American markets with its overseas website but had its customer service team only available during domestic working hours. When European and American customers visited the site during their active hours (which corresponded to late night domestically) and initiated consultations, they often received no response, leading to a significant drop in customer satisfaction and low order conversion rates. Within just 3 months, the customer loss rate due to time zone service gaps reached as high as 40%, and the website eventually stalled.

Our Solution

Our solution is to establish a global time zone coverage service system. We have customer service teams located in different time zones to ensure that customers in target markets receive timely online consultation responses during their core active hours. At the same time, the website system automatically displays local business hours, estimated shipping times, and customer service availability based on the visitor's time zone, making the service rhythm clear to customers. Additionally, we use an intelligent ticketing system that assigns customer messages and order requests to the appropriate personnel in the corresponding time zone, ensuring a response within 24 hours and a clear solution within 48 hours, effectively preventing customer loss due to time zone issues.

Overseas markets have strict laws and regulations, especially regarding data privacy protection, with the EU's GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) being a prime example. It sets high requirements for how businesses collect, store, and use user data. Many businesses, unfamiliar with local laws, leave their websites with serious compliance loopholes, ultimately facing hefty fines, or even being forced offline, which also damages user trust.

A cross-border e-commerce company built an overseas website that did not comply with GDPR regulations. It collected users' personal information and browsing data without clearly informing them or obtaining consent. After being reported by users, EU regulators fined the company 2 million euros, and the website was taken offline in the European market. The company's brand image was severely damaged, and it took years to rebuild user trust, paying a heavy price.

Our Risk Control System

Our risk control system prioritizes legal compliance. At the early stage of website building, our professional legal team conducts a comprehensive survey of the laws and regulations in the target market, especially data privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA, as well as local e-commerce operations and consumer rights protection laws. Based on the survey results, we set up a compliant user data collection process, clearly inform users of the data usage, and obtain their authorization. We also provide convenient channels for data deletion and modification. Additionally, we regularly audit the website’s compliance, updating the system promptly to adapt to legal changes, ensuring the website remains compliant at all times. A clothing brand that partnered with us successfully passed EU regulatory inspections through our compliance plan, and its user trust in the European market increased by 60%, with business steadily growing.

Payment is the final and most critical step in overseas e-commerce transactions. Many businesses' overseas websites face issues like limited payment methods, restricted settlement currencies, and insecure payment processes, creating payment fragmentation that leads customers to abandon purchases after placing orders, resulting in lost sales.

A company selling home goods had an overseas website that only supported credit card payments and did not support local currency settlements. In its target market of Southeast Asia, many users preferred using e-wallets like GrabPay and DOKU for payments. Additionally, due to the complexity of currency conversion, many customers abandoned their purchases at the payment stage. Statistics showed that the company's order abandonment rate due to payment fragmentation was as high as 55%, severely impacting business development.

Our Payment Solution

Our solution is to build a diversified and secure payment system. We partner with multiple global well-known payment service providers, supporting various payment methods such as credit cards, debit cards, e-wallets, and bank transfers, covering the mainstream payment habits in the target markets. At the same time, the website supports automatic multi-currency settlement, allowing users to pay in local currencies with the system automatically handling currency conversion, avoiding the hassle of exchange rate conversion. In terms of payment security, we introduce multiple security measures such as 3D Secure authentication and anti-fraud systems to ensure transaction information security and reduce payment risks. A company selling outdoor products that partnered with us saw its order abandonment rate drop to 15% and monthly sales increase by 80% after optimizing the payment system.

If you don’t want to repeat the mistakes of other businesses and hope to successfully build and operate your overseas website, consider choosing our services. Let our professional team protect your overseas website building journey.