1. Globalization
  2. Internationalization through Global E-commerce

Internationalization through Global E-commerce

Internationalization through global e-commerce means using a web store set up in one country to sell products and services in other countries. This type of trade lets merchants and business owners expand into non-native markets and sell to customers from target countries, thereby helping increase sales and profit.

Before you begin

Before taking your business international with NetSuite, you must first have a functioning website in your home country. To learn how to set up a NetSuite store front, see Store Front.

With NetSuite, you can take your business international with any of the following offerings:

  • SuiteCommerce

  • SuiteCommerce MyAccount

  • SuiteCommerce Advanced

The customers in your international market are likely different from the ones in your domestic market. When you take your business to international markets, your first step must be to define your e-commerce strategy for the target market. Research your market thoroughly and define the following aspects of your business:

Business Offering

Defining your business offering and a go-to-market strategy helps you select the best solution.

  • If you want your international customers to use the website to pay invoices and reorder items, SuiteCommerce My Account might be the best option.

  • If you want a fully functioning web store, consider SuiteCommerce or SuiteCommerce Advanced.

    • Set up one or more sites: Depending on the type of license that you have purchased, you can choose to set up a different website for your international market. A separate site lets you fully segregate business and marketing strategies.

    • Set up one or more domains: By having a separate domain name for your international market, you can improve your SEO results. For example, using the .ca domain extension for your Canadian market might rank it higher in search engine results for your Canadian customers than using a .com site.

Currency

You can cater to your international audience by conducting transactions in the currency of your home country and that of the target country.

  • A website supports multiple currencies. You must set one currency as the default.

  • A domain supports multiple currencies. The site default is used unless the customer selects a different one.

You must set the currency in ERP (see Enabling the Multiple Currencies Feature) and SuiteCommerce.

Payment Options

Consider the type of payment methods you want to offer. You can choose a single payment method to work across sites and domains. You can also tailor a payment method for the country your customers are logging in from.

As with currencies, set payment methods in ERP and SuiteCommerce. For detailed information, see the help topics 1. Set up a Payment Method in NetSuite ERP and Payment Options.

Prices

Create pricing groups to assign customer-specific price levels for different groups of items. You can create multiple pricing groups across sites and domains.

Set pricing in ERP and SuiteCommerce. For more information, see Setting Up Item Pricing.

Taxes

Countries have different types and requirements for value added tax (VAT). Depending on the country you are expanding your business to, you might have to set up the following: PST, QST, or HST for Canada; GST for Australia.

Note:

NetSuite SuiteCommerce shows prices without tax. Taxes are displayed at checkout only, and the default is a single tax line only (without breaking it down into possible different types of VAT taxes).

You must set taxes in ERP first.

Due to tax regulations, you might prefer to have more subsidiaries when tax is involved. To learn more about a subsidiary, see Subsidiary.

Finally, determine the way you need to pay taxes. Before you start selling in your target country, research the existence of tax-paying thresholds at the target country's tax collector. You have the following options:

  • Pay taxes at your domestic tax collector. Thresholds might be applicable.

  • Pay taxes at the tax collector of the target country, which may require a local tax identification number and a local business registration.

NetSuite provides you with the following options:

  • Display taxes with SuiteCommerce.

  • Set up different subsidiaries to segment your business flows and tax payments for different geographies with NetSuite OneWorld.

Customs

Research the thresholds that collect customs at your home and target markets.

Language

NetSuite offers Translatability Support, and you should evaluate your translation requirements before expanding into an international market. For example, if you are operating from Mexico and expanding your business to Costa Rica, you don't need to worry about translation. However, if you are expanding from the United States to Canada, you could consider translating content to French for customers in Quebec.

Note:

One language can be displayed across multiple domains. However, one domain cannot display multiple languages.

To set up multi language in ERP, go to Items > Item description > ERP item record. Translate all item names and descriptions, and upload the .csv file. See Working With Multi-Language Names and Descriptions for more details.

To translate your website content, including the text on landing pages, opt for Site Management Tools. See Exporting and Importing Bulk Translation Content in Site Management Tools for more details.

Marketing and SEO

Create digital marketing content that is local to the country or region that you are expanding to. From an SEO point of view, you must translate and create website content geared toward your target audience, allow translations in the local currency, and foster high-quality incoming links, among other things. These aspects can help make your web store easily searchable and highly ranked on search engines. The more localized the content on your website, the more likely it is to be at the top of the search results displayed to the local audience.

Use themes and extensions to customize your website for your target country or region. NetSuite allows customization on the website level as well as the domain level.

Item Catalogs

NetSuite supports segmentation, which means showing different items for different markets and users. By default, you can make items available for your US website as well as for your Canadian website. Alternatively, you can make a set of items available only for the Canadian website but not for the US. This type of segmentation is the easiest and the most appropriate for logged-in users. Determine the items or item catalog you would like the non-logged-in web store visitors to see.

NetSuite offers several methods to select items that must be displayed:

  • OneWorld helps in making items available to one or more subsidiaries. This setup lets each website to select specific items from specific subsidiaries.

  • Personalized Catalog Views (PCV) give more granular control over set of items that need to be displayed to specific customers. PCV also lets you define the items that can be viewed by visitors who are not logged in.

    Set up item catalogues in ERP and in SuiteCommerce.

Item availability

After you select the items that should be displayed on your web stores, determine the specific stock and supply that can be made available for your customers and websites.

NetSuite offers several methods with various levels of complexity:

  • The default is for each item to display the stock in the subsidiary of the website or of the logged-in customer.

  • Cross-Subsidiary Fulfillment permits accessing inventory and supply from other subsidiaries.

  • Customization or SuiteApps assist in checking when inventory will be back in stock, based on the purchase orders across the website's subsidiary.

  • Features such as supply allocation and supply visibility let you set up and configure inventory and supply visibility. They also help adjust visibility based on subsidiaries, locations, and time parameters.

Going International with NetSuite E-commerce Products

NetSuite offers several features that can help you grow your business. In the following sections, we look at these products and solutions and how you can use them to target your international audience.

Subsidiaries

In NetSuite, subsidiaries provide a way to manage data for a hierarchical structure of separate legal entities. They can help keep your existing business separate, reducing risk, and executing your business strategy. Your decision to work with subsidiaries also influences how you manage and set up your e-commerce web store.

By default, a NetSuite account operates from a single subsidiary. To learn more about subsidiaries, see Subsidiary.

A SuiteCommerce website is used by multiple subsidiaries. However, a website can have only a single subsidiary as its default, which means:

  • Only items available in the default subsidiary are displayed to anonymous customers. When a customer logs in, they can see only items under their subsidiaries.

  • Orders placed on the website go to the default subsidiary.

  • Anonymous customers who place orders on the website are associated with the default subsidiary.

NetSuite Products

NetSuite offers the following products. With the help of use cases, this section can help you decide which product can support your international business venture.

  • SuiteCommerce MyAccount - Select this option if you are not ready for a public-facing web store but would still like to give international customers an easier way to view orders, pay invoices, and update personal details. SuiteCommerce MyAccount permits reordering items and managing SuiteBilling subscriptions. For more information, see SuiteBilling and SuiteCommerce My Account.

    SuiteCommerce MyAccount is currently available in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

    If you have a SuiteCommerce web store, SuiteCommerce MyAccount is already part of the issued license. In this case, the SuiteCommerce MyAccount portal is part of the same SuiteCommerce web store. One SuiteCommerce portal can cater to customers from different countries and regions because it supports multiple currencies and languages. When you have different subsidiaries, customers logging in to your SuiteCommerce portal have visibility only in the context of their default subsidiary.

  • SuiteCommerce - This is an option if you want run a web store that offers a complete shopping experience.

    SuiteCommerce is currently available only in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

  • SuiteCommerce Advanced - With this option, you have granular control over every aspect of your web store.

To understand features that are supported for each product offering, see the table under Commerce Website Types.

Multiple Websites versus Multiple Domains

In NetSuite, every website associates with its own website setup record. When a website setup record is created and activated, it uses one product license.

  • If you choose to operate multiple sites, you can achieve a great deal of control and flexibility around the commercial aspects of your business, such as customer access, shipping, and payment methods.

  • If you choose to operate a single site with multiple domains, you won't have a lot of flexibility but will still have ease of setup and operations. An active domain consumes one secure, customer-domain license. Domains are associated with SuiteCommerce configuration records.

Customization

To customize your site for your international market, you can use one website with multiple domains or use multiple websites. The benefit of operating a single website with multiple domains is that it gives the appearance of having several websites with little effort. Before deciding between having a single and multiple websites, consider the following requirements:

  • A customized storefront

  • A different item catalog

  • New extensions and functionalities

Any customization applied at the account and subsidiary level applies to the site and the associated domains. Therefore, if you want your site to use a different currency, ensure that the corresponding account and subsidiary operate in that currency.

Using Multiple Domains

To tailor your website for your international audience, use a domain corresponding to the geographical region. For example, if you have a web store in the United States and plan to take your business to Canada, you can have a .ca domain and a global .com domain.

To plan for and set up a new domain:

  1. Purchase a local domain name from a domain name provider.

  2. Create the domain on a NetSuite server.

  3. Link the domain to the domain name.

The process of setting up all domain types is the same in NetSuite. However, the information you enter in the domain set-up form depends on the domain type that you select.

To learn how to set up a domain, see Advanced Domain Setup.

Using Multiple Websites

You can purchase licenses to run multiple websites on the same NetSuite account. Every website can have a different appearance, branding, and functionality. For example, if you are expanding your US-based business to Canada, a separate website can display item names and descriptions in French and accept payment in Canadian dollars. You can customize the web store to add translated components.

For more information, see Creating a new Site.

Related Topics

Globalization
Translatability Support
Internationalization
Globalization Glossary

General Notices