Trading Partner: International sales made easy thanks to Zonos.

AuthorMiller, B.
PositionWorldview

At World Trade Center Utah, we hear the same story time and time again. A small business with a cool product is growing fast. The company has started to receive inquiries from international customers, but doesn't have the first idea how to fulfill international orders or have an understanding of the rules and regulations to sell abroad.

Fear of the unknown often prevents these companies from capitalizing on prospective international customers. The good news is this does not have to be the case. A Utah software company has the solution to make online international sales a simple process.

Technology is power

Zonos, formerly named iGlobal Stores, is an e-commerce and Saas technology company located in St. George that is seeing a lot of growth thanks to its innovative software. It created a website plugin for small-to-medium-sized businesses and APIs for the large-to-enterprise-sized companies, to calculate duties, taxes and shipping rates for their international customers in real time at checkout and during the shopping experience.

So how does this all work? When international customers visit a website that utilizes Zonos' software, they immediately see a pop up welcoming them to the website and letting them know that they can buy and have products shipped to their door. After putting the products they want in their online shopping cart, they proceed to checkout. Instead of going to the domestic checkout, the customer is sent to Zonos' checkout page, which looks similar to that of the company's. The customer inputs his/her address, the plug-in analyzes the items in the cart and then the customer is able to see shipping options and the duties, taxes and brokerage fees to deliver the product to their country.

Customers from Tooele to Timbuctoo can now have the same comfortable and information-filled checkout experience. Shipping rates are calculated based on the rates the company negotiated with its shippers. For example, if the company ships with UPS, the Zonos team pulls those rates directly from the company's UPS account and inputs them into its software.

More than 400 U.S. websites utilize Zonos' services. Merchants using the Zonos Checkout have found their international sales increase significantly, which adds millions of additional dollars into the U.S. economy.

The value

It is important that pricing for international customers is transparent so they can make an informed decision on their potential purchase. Unfortunately, a hardware store...

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