International Business and Technology Blog

In today's borderless digital landscape, exporting goods and services to global markets has become more accessible than ever. U.S. exporters are embracing ecommerce platforms like Shopify to unlock international growth potential. And when it comes to navigating the complexities of global expansion, IBT Online emerges as the perfect partner, offering Online Global Shopify ecommerce programs that propel businesses to new heights on the global stage.

Shopify, a renowned ecommerce platform known for its versatility and user-friendliness, provides the ideal foundation for U.S. exporters. With its intuitive interface, businesses can effortlessly establish online stores that cater to specific international markets.

Domain registration is one of the first steps you need to take when creating localized websites for your export markets. South America is not an exception, but which domains should you register?

Canada is a great market for US companies testing the international export waters for the first time, but equally offers a great long-term international business growth opportunity. Canada is the go-to export market of many US companies, not only thanks to its close proximity, which allows for easier, more affordable shipping and order fulfilment, but also thanks to lower language and cultural barriers. But how about the barriers of the online world? What should you consider when building a website(s) for Canada?

Many customers ask us: Why do you use ExpressionEngine? Can't you build a WordPress website for us?

WordPress is enjoying a huge popularity today, but it’s ExpressionEngine that gets web developers and designers really excited. ExpressionEngine is IBT Online’s Content Management System of preference, because it’s extremely robust, secure, easy to use, offers endless flexibility that is required to address customers’ most demanding requests, and thanks to the Transcribe add-on by EEHarbor, is great to manage multilingual content. You don’t have to limit your imagination and your requirements… be bold and give your company a tool to properly express and represent yourselves!

In the past few months, Google has introduced two major changes to their Google Keyword Planner available via Google AdWords. The tool is frequently used by SEO (search engine optimization) experts not only for paid advertising, but also to research and analyze keywords for organic search. Google Keyword Planner provides estimates of average monthly searches of individual keywords. The tool can focus results on specific geographic areas, and is therefore very helpful in multilingual search engine optimization.

Are you thinking of setting up an international online store? We put together a quick test that will help you evaluate whether your products and business model are suitable for selling online internationally.

The array of products to sell online is enormous. Frankly, creating an exhaustive list of all requirements for online sales that would address every single type of product sold from and to every single market in the world is an impossible task. To keep things fun and easy, we put together a list of questions that you should ask yourself when deciding whether to sell online internationally.

This blog’s goal is to give you an overview of European domain registration requirements for selected countries.

Can a non-EU company register European domains?

Even though the EU coordinates and standardizes many processes across the member states, requirements for domain registration are still managed by each country independently and often differ considerably.  Some countries will allow you to register domains without further requirements, while others will require you to provide various local details, e.g. address or corporate tax number, in which case you’ll need the help of a local partner. Some domain registrars provide local contact details for selected countries as part of their service too.

Leading Chinese search engines

Two years ago, Baidu boasted 80% of the Chinese online search market. Today, Baidu’s market share is estimated at 55% (1). But the winner has not been the otherwise world dominant Google, but other Chinese search engines including Qihoo 360 and Sogou.

While Baidu’s dominant position among the search engines in China has eroded, Google has not been a beneficiary since it has been banned in China as of 2010. Besides censorship, ClickZ (2) cites different online search behavior as one of the factors why Baidu and other domestic search engines have been more successful in China than Google. For example: an average Chinese internet user spends 3-6 times more time on page on average, does not focus on the upper left corner of the page as their Western counterparts do, searches mostly on smartphones and prefers to choose from a list rather than by typing keywords.

The importance of owning a domain for your export markets is twofold: Firstly, to protect and own your brand, secondly to improve your local search engine optimization. In this blog, we will take a closer look at both of these aspects, give you recommendations on the increasingly popular geographical domains, and provide you with basic information on what you need to register your international domains.

You might be working with a web agency that is very artistic and design oriented, focusing on developing your brand. Or you might be working with a web agency that is more results oriented, focusing on search engine optimization and driving visitors to the site. In the best case, your web agency can offer you both - unique custom design and a superior website performance. The best agencies specify website features based on your requirements and those of your website’s users. They create great online platforms, supporting and driving your sales in your home market. Market, which both you and your web agency know very well.

But what about your export markets? Does your local web agency have the right skillsets to create and market your international websites and thus grow your business equally successfully abroad?