Due to the availability of the Web as a sales and marketing channel, the cost of offering goods and services to broader markets has dropped significantly. The administrative burden of expansion to international markets has gone down. Companies like e-Bay have shown that consumer-purchasing behavior includes frequent international shopping with greater ease of online shopping.
Although there are obvious opportunities to lower costs through increased production for sales to a larger market, the cultural differences in the regions of the international marketplace usually necessitate adaptations. These adaptations range from modifying the marketing message to product adaptation to order-processing changes, shipping and administration and tax issues.
An interesting rule of thumb is that if your company succeeds at selling in the U.S. market, there is a good chance that it will also be successful internationally, at least for those where similar needs and conditions exist. Examining the needs of the prospective market itself is also always advisable. Companies whose products and services have the potential to fulfill needs in foreign markets risk losing those markets to local competitors if they don't move quickly enough.
If the prospective market has a need for your business’s product or service, next steps make sense. Ways to research whether there is a need included investigating the number of competitors and the vibrancy of their activity. More competitors indicate greater need.
If there is no competition, including no similar businesses, you may want, depending on your budget and distribution relationships, to test market to a sample population and use the results to determine next steps.
If there is competition, determine common themes in marketing messages, product benefits and features, pricing and process. Contrast and compare to our current business operation. Determine opportunities for cost savings through standardization with greater volume. Also consider marketing and product adaptation to better target the needs of the prospective international market. An example might be making a smaller version for the Japanese market where many companies offer smaller versions of packaged goods. Coca-cola and other beverage companies offer a smaller can size in Japan to match the size of the Japanese brands.
To begin to get an idea of whether your business is ready to go international, click here to take the w2wlink 6-question self-quiz.
Although there are considerable opportunities to take business international, many details need to be addressed for a smooth expansion. It would benefit those interested in international expansion to visit the following web references to familiarize themselves more with international business possibilities: Federation of International Trade OrganizationsFederation http://www.fita.org/, GlobeTrade http://www.globetrade.com/, International Trade Administration U.S. Department of Commerce http://www.ita.doc.gov/, and the International Chamber of Commerce http://www.iccwbo.org/. There is a thorough guide to the ease of doing business in countries worldwide at the World Bank's Doing Business 2008 (PDF, 4.3MB).
Jean Lewis,
has edited and written for consumer Web sites and publications reaching nearly 50 million people. Her credits include writing and editing online and print articles, sales and training materials, marketing collateral, and advertising and PR for conusmer companies including BeautiControl, a Tupperware subsidiary's publications to women ages 20s through 50s, the WHO Foundation, Women Helping Others, MCG Magazine, Los Angeles and Seasonal Living Guide for Sam’s Club, a retailing subsidiary of Wal-Mart. Her career also includes working and living in Canada and Japan. Jean is well regarded for her market-research based approach to managing story development enabling consistently original, relevant and timely content.
