Internationalization. What does it mean?

Hint: It's about using technology and digital infrastructure to go global while looking like a local.

Building a blueprint for entering international markets starts with your tech. Designing your organization’s digital architecture to enable location-based services allows seamless language, currency and tax table translations. This technology is what it takes to scale your products and services globally.

Technology has made it relatively easy to expand to new markets. Online marketplaces are growing exponentially, opening new markets to organizations once confined to local regions. This growth in the market signals that now is the time for companies to start building plans for worldwide expansion.

Internationalization begins with a focus on location.

At the heart of internationalization is localization. The key is custom-built, tailor-made experiences that speak directly and seamlessly to your customers in different countries, in their languages and cultures. It means coming across like a local, and accounting for context and meaning is a key to delivering content that speaks to your customers in the way they know and understand. That connection needs to be an integral part of the design process when thinking about building new digital properties for global markets.

Grow your presence in international markets through localized site content, marketplaces, currency options, payment gateways and sales channels. Displaying local currencies and payment options gives your users the confidence to purchase. Refine your content by region while maintaining your brand, voice and unique experience across all properties. Global expansion, new digital channels, multi-language, multi-currency, and multi-domain offer opportunities where existing markets may have become saturated. 

Internationalization: Reaching your ideal customer anywhere in the world.

What's next once you have the right technical architecture in place and your digital operations run like a well-oiled machine? Well, it’s time to take over the world!

What internationalization looks like to your customers

• Localized content and conversion tools – Your unique, branded site experience, with translated, localized content, pushed to the proper geographies to empower local sales teams with region-specific growth and conversion tools.
• Localized currency and payment options – A location-specific version of your home site that displays currency, transactions and settlements so that your clients can pay in their currency and with their terms. 
• Localized catalogues and pricing – Customized product catalogues, pricing and promotions for your target regions because the strategy that works domestically isn’t always what wins worldwide.

Building localized ecommerce experiences for your global customer is the key to solid internationalization. It will allow you to grow your company through technology and automation solutions to sell your products across the globe into new channels and markets without needing a physical presence in those areas. Integrating your business with third-party marketplaces also helps to increase brand awareness in global regions.