At Forrester, we've recently launched playbooks on topics such as Agile Commerce, Retail eCommerce, and B2B eCommerce. We are now getting underway with an eCommerce globalization playbook: Our first report on The Global eCommerce Opportunity (subtitle Landscape: The eCommerce Globalization Playbook) just went live. In the report, we discuss topics such as:

Which regions of the world are top of mind for brands today. The idea of a globally connected world is appealing, yet we are very much at the early stages of international expansion when it comes to eCommerce.** We look at typical global expansion paths and which regions are seeing an influx of new eCommerce initiatives. US and European retailers have tended to expand into each other’s regions first with an eCommerce offering – increasingly, however, both US and European brands are taking a much more Asia-centric approach. Coach, for example, only offers eCommerce-enabled sites in the US, Canada, China, and Japan.

Executives at digital businesses cite a wide variety of challenges when expanding globally, but “finding the right talent to run our organization” inevitably factors high on their lists.  Yet despite the extensive preparation that goes into international expansion efforts, it’s rare to find companies staffing up far in advance of these initiatives. Some thoughts for digital organizations with increasingly global aspirations:

Think international – even before you are. It’s common to hear of multinational corporations thinking globally when creating content. For example, by avoiding website or marketing content that includes numerous local references, it becomes easier to translate that content into other languages. Executives need to extend this idea of early preparation from content to people as they staff up their teams: If digital leaders know they want to operate in multiple markets going forward, they need to start building teams with global knowledge well before they start their international expansion.

Hire candidates with international experience across the organization. Companies do not need to hire global talent with the sole purpose of contributing to international expansion. To the contrary: Many digital businesses bring in employees with strong language skills and knowledge of different global markets to work in a wide variety of capacities within the organization. A more globally experienced workforce can provide more diverse insights – additionally, as international markets rise in importance, those organizations that have hired and mentored employees with knowledge of these markets will be better positioned for success later. Some smaller vendors, for example, were able to establish a foothold in emerging markets relatively quickly by relying on executives with existing knowledge of these countries to guide their market entry strategies.

eCommerce technology is a fast-growing, rapidly evolving industry – we’re looking for a Principal/Senior Analyst to help build our coverage of this incredibly dynamic area. 

Here’s a quick snapshot from the job description:

The Principal/Senior Analyst will write for, present to, and advise eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals in the retail, wholesale, and CPG industries to help guide their eCommerce and other multichannel commerce technology decisions. He/she will need a strong understanding of the business and technology issues facing eBusiness executives today and an appetite for conducting and writing research to stay abreast of the issues.

If this is you, we’d love to hear from you! Please feel free to reach out directly to me at zwigder at forrester dot com or submit via the job posting. 

I recently had a chance to catch up with another global eCommerce enthusiast: Hendrik Laubscher works for PriceCheck, a price comparison site in South Africa owned by MIH Internet Africa. He and I sat down for a coffee to talk all things developing eCommerce markets. A few things that came out of our conversation:

In South Africa, payments and broadband connectivity remain hurdles to eCommerce adoption. South Africa, the continent’s largest eCommerce market, remains at a relatively early stage, with several inhibitors preventing the market from truly flourishing.  Although credit and debit card usage is growing, overall penetration remains low, even in comparison to other large emerging markets. PayPal offerings have been a challenge, as well — currency issues and restrictions that required users to be registered FNB online banking customers prevented many from taking advantage of this payment method.  Additionally, the country’s low overall Internet penetration — in particular, broadband penetration — also presents hurdles. The CEO of Woolworths in South Africa recently said that faster, cheaper broadband was essential for eCommerce to flourish, but estimated that this scenario remained “about four years off.”

We just published our new Latin American Online Retail Forecast, 2012-2017 which forecasts growth in Brazil, Mexico and, for the first time, Argentina. In the report, we analyze the B2C and C2C online retail markets in these three countries, and note that:

Brazil remains the largest eCommerce market in Latin America by a wide margin. Despite the economic slowdown in Brazil, eCommerce continues to charge ahead in the country, surpassing USD 12 Billion this year. Unlike the other two markets we forecast in the region, Brazil’s eCommerce market is heavily driven by mass-market consumers: Our surveys indicate that over half of metropolitan online users whose monthly income is less than BRL 4,000 (around USD 2,000) shop online in Brazil. Online shoppers in Brazil are also starting to diversify their purchases beyond early adopter categories such as books and media, consumer electronics and computer hardware.

eCommerce revenues in Mexico are growing rapidly off a small base. In contrast to Brazil, eCommerce in Mexico remains at an early stage, with small but growing revenues. Online buyers tend to be relatively affluent, but per capita online spending remains quite low. As the online buying population expands and starts to encompass a broader demographic, eBusinesses will need to take into account the large percentage of consumers in Mexico who do not have credit cards and who access the Internet outside the home or office.