Evangelizing International Business and Online Presence

Expand your presence and push to include international consumers and business.

The reason is both logical but also as a bit of public service. Let’s start with the logical.

A recent Nielsen Online Survey as seen in InternetRetailer reported that global internet online shoppers have increased 40% in the last two years. Many of the technological hurdles present for many countries are being overcome. Increased bandwidth is making online shopping much easier as can be attested to anyone who remembers switching from dial up to DSL a few years ago. Especially amazing is the United States is only ranked 8th worldwide in terms of adoption of online shopping. Approximately 94% of internet users in the US have made a purchase online, which puts the country behind more online savvy countries like Japan, Korea, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Reaching out to this international population is essential for many businesses as evidenced by recent outreach efforts by computer manufacturers like Dell, to produce low cost units which can be made widely available to populations that traditionally could not have afforded a computer.

For retailers, the greatest hurdle is ensuring accurate payment processing and shipment. The good news is there are many companies working to solve these issues. However, some problems have a way to go, as evidenced in China where many times a payment is made by sending a bicycler to the consumers home to collect funds. Luckily, credit card adoption is catching up in foreign countries as well.

The second reason to push into international business adoption is focused on the general health of the US economy. I am not someone who could be considered a nationalist in any sense, but I do pay attention close enough to know a perpetually worsening trade deficit is hurting the long term prospects of the US economy. When you have leading investors like Warren Buffett leading a push to invest internationally because of poor long term growth here, many should begin to reconsider if we need to begin changing direction.

It’s ridiculous to expect the United States to continue to have such a substantially higher level of wealth compared to the rest of the planet, and equally ridiculous to justify this should be the case. However, I am increasingly concerned the US is in the same state as the Roman Empire, when the wealth of the empire was being spent on foreign and imported consumable goods, resulting in a drain of resources and eventually a hollowing of the entire infrastructure . Of course, as an undergrad in History, I can tell there is a lot more to the story, but the point can be made. The US is in decline and things will get worse unless the country and it’s businesses find more substantial things to offer to the rest of the world besides credit cards, music, and hamburgers.

To ensure the US continues to lead in some fashion, businesses need to be more innovative and offer more creativity than is currently the case. Giants like Microsoft and Google are doing a good job, as are traditional corporations like Walmart. The typical American business should do more as well to lead the way. Especially now as the currency is declining and no longer a benchmark as countries like China cash out by unloading their investments in US currency because of it’s decade long instability. This creates a huge opportunity as devalued US currency means any goods and services offered to the rest of the world will essentially be cheaper to other countries. Now is a golden moment to begin to take your company’s offerings overseas because the Euro, Yen, and Pound will buy so much more.

If you have not thought about expanding recently, then now is the time to develop a plan and put it in motion.

February 25th, 2008