All Commerce Is Local, But Some Locales Matter More than Others

The biggest and most multinational companies regularly sell their wares across many markets. The best use locally savvy channels and Web sites to make themselves known, sell and support their products wherever they sell them. But one thing is clear: There’s an infinite amount of opportunity, but a limited pool of resources to do the work.

Naturally, this leads to a triage discussion around resource allocation and which markets will provide the best return on investment. The first question is typically “which countries or languages should we do first?” Some firms establish local Web sites where they already have a physical presence on the ground, including their own operations, customers or a distributor. Their next questions involve benchmarking – “what are our competitors doing?” or “what’s the best practice for any company on the web?” Finally, they ask what content they should publish at each local Web site.

First off, everyone recognizes that the “World Wide” Web implies global reach. Some companies assume that this means they are already global. However, in most cases it just means that prospects (and competitors) worldwide can view your offerings.

Unfortunately, that viewing is typically in your language rather than theirs. In an ideal world, they’d be able to read about your company in their language, buy your products using their currency, and get deliveries through couriers they know and trust.

In the real world, most companies still translate into just a couple of languages; if they’re outside the English-speaking zone, they often offer their own language plus English. If they come from an Anglophone country, they’ll have English and the languages of maybe one or two of their trading partners. In our recent study of over 500 Web sites at the leading companies in 15 countries, we found that most do offer just two, their home-country language and one other.

What’s the scope of this challenge? It includes translating a Web site and all the registration, database and transactional elements that allow two-way communications and commerce. That can be expensive and a drain on resources for just one language, let alone many. Those realities led me a few years ago to postulate that you can ignore most countries and languages on the Web.

Yes, that’s right. You can ignore most countries and still get a great return on your globalization investment. Here’s our logic: The top 25 countries, as measured by gross domestic product, account for over 80% of the world’s economy (click here for a list of those countries). In other words, the world’s most economically active populations inhabit these countries. Their residents also happen to be the most frequent users of the Web. The bottom line is that these 25 countries matter more than others when you’re talking about communicating, branding, selling and supporting customers online. If you want to sell, you’ll have to adapt the transaction logic, currencies, and other country-specific details for each nation. As you develop your game plan for Web site globalization, you can achieve maximum return by localizing your way through these top 25 economies.

In our research over the last few years, we also found some other interesting correlations. For example, just 10 mega-languages account for three-quarters of the people on the Web (click here for a list of those languages). Thus, if your goal is to maximize brand awareness, you can get the maximum bang for your buck by limiting your web outreach to just 10 languages.

When going global, marketers need to consider not only the need for their product but the socio-legal-political-economic environment into which you’re selling. Once you get off the Web or start selling products to specialty demographics, these rules of thumb – either the top 25 economies or top 10 mega-languages – may work for your product. For example, Indian carmakers designing the sub-$3,000 automobile will market first to drivers in developing countries well before they turn their attention to buyers of commuter and city cars in Europe and North America.

Maximize your return on Web site globalization and global marketing, work your way through the top 25 countries. For less economically active populations, look for channels other than the Web. And in all cases, make sure that you tailor your communications to local buying motivators, desires, and requirements. The bottom line: All commerce is local.

Don DePalma is the founder and chief research officer of the research and consulting firm Common Sense Advisory, and author of “Business Without Borders: A Strategic Guide to Global Marketing.”