International Market Strategies, Examples of Companies Such as Walmart

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International Marketing According to the article “Think globally and act locally” by Ryan Underwood, International Data Corp. predicts that two-thirds of worldwide Internet spending--$914 billion--will come from outside the United States by 2003. On top of that, IDC "conservatively predicts" that 36% of all Internet users by 2003 will prefer to use a language other than English when surfing the Web. In key regions such as Japan, Latin America and the Eurozone, that preference to operate on the Web in one's native tongue climbs to 84%, 75% and 52%, respectively. And the icing on the cake is that IDC found consumers up to four times more likely to shop and purchase online from sites that support their native language. The global ubiquity of the Internet gives e-businesses unprecedented opportunities to reach international markets in a meaningful and cost-effective way. Wal-Mart (www.walmart.com) could adopt an effective international strategy by making websites for different regions where they want to start their store lines. But a mere translation of one's site is usually not enough to give global customers the sense of true Web site localization. Tim Coughlin, director of marketing for Translations.com in New York, says a simple translation of the text on a site can have a major impact on its design. "Let's say you're translating a site from English into German, you're going to have about 25% more text." The additional text, he says, can throw off a carefully designed Web site, displaying things much differently than intended. The following is a list of issues (as stated in one of the articles given in the references - MAKE INTERNATIONAL SALES VIA YOUR WEB SITE FROM DAY ONE) that need to be taken care of if you want to successfu...

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...l of what the company wants to do online being at the top of the list, and what needs to be done to proceed in reaching those goals? That’s where globalization technologies and services are one of the elements that support that project. References Analysis for www.walmart.com Five Thoughts about…Website Globalization By: Jon Surmacz August 13, 2003, Available: http://www.darwinmag.com/read/thoughts/column.html?ArticleID=145 “MAKE INTERNATIONAL SALES VIA YOUR WEB SITE FROM DAY ONE” August 13, 2003, http://www.international-marketing.co.uk/www/intl.web.site.html AT&T SPELLS OUT INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY, Network World, August 13, 2003, http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2002/129527_01-28-2002.html Think globally, act locally By Ryan Underwood August 13, 2003, Available: http://www.ebusinessiq.com/special%20interests/strategy/144-eBusinessIQ%20Strategy.html

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