“We use We Are Pentagon to test the waters in overseas marketplaces” is how Dan Cartner of Sportsshoes.com describes the “global sales success” provider’s part in supporting the UK-born retailer swell up into a global player.
Speaking to Tamebay, Dan Cartner, ecommerce manager of Sportsshoes.com sketches out the expansion journey of the 38-year-old retailer, founded by former footballer Bruce Bannister.
“As a big online multichannel retailer, we were quite capable of managing the English speaking market.” The natural move for the multichannel pureplayer was to begin expanding beyond its border. However, the UK-based retailer found it somewhat ‘mission impossible’ to look after overseas marketplaces without the sufficient tools, services and expertise needed to convert shoppers in non-Anglosphere territories, let alone compete with established businesses. “When we were a much smaller business, we didn’t have the expertise nor knowledge to deal with customer service, translations, managing listings on international marketplaces”.
Meanwhile, a supplier that is passionate about “increasing your online sales globally” called We Are Pentagon launched their services, focused on allaying common cross-border pain-points. They combined their extensive marketplace knowledge with Sportsshoes.com’s growth objectives to join efforts in targeting emerging markets.
“We worked with We Are Pentagon for the best part of 10 years now since they were founded. Our focus with We Are Pentagon was on non-English speaking marketplaces.” The decade has seen a business that didn’t have much international awareness wooing shoppers in countries including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, New Zealand, Australia and the US. “We work with We Are Pentagon for eBay marketplaces worldwide. More ‘exotic’ marketplaces are also in our artillery including Cdiscount, Trade Me and Priceminister.”
