How Avon.com leverages domestic skills to expand overseas
Already selling through reps in more than 100 countries, Avon Products Inc. is now expanding its e-commerce operations beyond the U.S. as well. Along the way, it will push sales and profits up and costs down with lessons learned at home, says Pattiann McAdams, executive director of e-commerce.
Avon has kicked off its international e-commerce sales strategy in Canada, which is already serving as a base for further expansion of online sales into the U.K. Avon is also looking at Japan as an e-commerce market in the near term.
But moving into those and other markets will take a constant review of what works and what doesn’t work in each market, as Avon, No. 27 in Internet Retailer Top 300 Guide to online retailers, leverages its experience in the U.S. to use best practices abroad, McAdams says. “You need to identify what the hurdles to overcome in each of the other markets,” she says.
That doesn’t necessarily mean copying strategies that work in the U.S., only learning from them, she adds. In Canada, for example, Avon has decided against using its U.S.-based policy of outsourcing fulfillment and distribution for online orders. Already familiar with the advantages offered by outsourcing, Avon realized it would be better off operating its own fulfillment and distribution in Canada out of its existing Montreal warehouse used for stocking reps with its cosmetics and other products. “By in-sourcing fulfillment and distribution with our own warehouse, we were able to reduce costs and increase control of inventory,” McAdams says. “We’ll be profitable online year-one in Canada. It took three years to get profitable online in the U.S.”
Avon’s e-commerce expansion into the U.K. will be overseen by the same e-commerce managers serving Canada. Avon will maintain a minimal crew in the U.K. to oversee localized fulfillment and distribution, McAdams says. “We leverage the same people wherever we can to drive profits,” she says.
In Japan, however, it will use similar merchandising and fulfillment strategies but with a new dedicated staff that understands the local market. In Japan it will also rely more on links from MSN Shopping, which McAdams says has set up an effective web infrastructure for serving international markets, and from affiliate relationships managed by Linkshare.
McAdams’s presentation is titled “Overcoming the Key Practical Technical and Organizational Hurdles to Delivering Your Products and Services to the International Market.” She will speak at 4:50 p.m. on Tuesday in the Track C International session.
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