Business-to-business (B2B) companies have become very serious about reaching out to foreign clients. According to IDC`s Internet Executive Panel, a study that tracks ecommerce companies` globalization efforts, 60% of B2B companies are globalizing their Web sites. This response rate is up from 37% in the previous year`s study. By 2004, IDC predicts the percentage of B2B companies that globalize will level off at 80%.
"Globalization pays off by converting browsers into buyers," said Rob Rosenthal, research analyst for IDC`s Internet Economy program. "Globalized and nonglobalized companies have roughly the same percentage of foreign visitors. Globalization makes it easier for those visitors to buy, and that has an enormous effect on top-line revenue."
According to IDC`s study, companies that do nothing to globalize project foreign revenue earnings of 10% in 2000 and 12% in 2001. However, companies that are globalizing project foreign revenue earnings of 25% and 30% during those same years.
IDC says globalization imposes both technical and organizational challenges. Coordinating sales to foreign customers and purchases from foreign suppliers, allocating marketing resources, and managing channels are the three greatest hurdles for companies.
"A Web site is a company`s face to the world," Rosenthal said. "The faster companies globalize, the faster they will be smiling down on their nonglobalizing competitors when revenue earnings are posted."
Information like the above can be found in IDC`s report Globalization in the B2B World: Where Your Competitors Are and How to Catch Up (IDC #B23122). This report is based on results from IDC`s Internet Executive Panel survey. IDC recruited by email and direct mail a panel of 617 managers of business-to-business and business-to-consumer ecommerce sites. This study tracks what features ecommerce companies are using to globalize their sites, which countries those companies are targeting, and what their results have been.
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International Data Corporation (IDC)
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