International Business and Technology Blog

IBT Online is thrilled to announce the renewal of our Strategic Partnership with the U.S. Department of Commerce (USDOC) - International Trade Administration (ITA) - U.S. Commercial Service for 2024/25!

First established in November 2023, this partnership has been instrumental in helping American exporters expand their global reach. The annual review conducted by the ITA has recognized the success and impact of our collaboration, leading to the signing of a new contract to continue our joint mission. We are excited to build on the momentum of the past year and drive further success for American businesses in international markets.

AMSOIL have taken control of their global online presence. AMSOIL is justifiably proud of its reputation amongst ‘gearheads’ for the quality of its synthetic motor oils, fuel additives and lubricants. As one of the few independently owned oil companies, AMSOIL recognizes the value of its brand and uses its website and social media for both B2B and B2C to manage their brand and intellectual property. Management were therefore particularly concerned with many of their export markets where they found their brand could be misrepresented.

In the fast-paced realm of international ecommerce, smaller American exporters often grapple with the challenge of establishing a successful ecommerce presence in global markets.

While your own e-commerce website platforms (think WooCommerce, and Shopify) may seem like the default choice, the process can be a demanding endeavor in terms of resources, both management and budgetary. In this blog post, we explore a more efficient route for smaller exporters looking to dip their toes into the expansive world of e-commerce exports—leveraging international marketplaces.

In today's global marketplace, ecommerce has become a vital channel for American exporters to reach international customers.

To help American businesses thrive in the digital age, IBT Online offers cutting-edge ecommerce WooCommerce Programs. Let's explore how these programs can revolutionize your export strategy and unlock new opportunities for growth.

1. The Power of Ecommerce:Ecommerce has transformed the way businesses operate, enabling them to connect with customers worldwide. IBT Online's Ecommerce WooCommerce Programs harness the power of this digital revolution, empowering American exporters to tap into global markets and drive sales online.

IBT Online's services can benefit a wide range of American exporters, but certain types of exporters may particularly benefit from their expertise. These include:

1. SMEs often have limited resources and may lack the in-house expertise to navigate the complexities of international online marketing. IBT Online's services can provide SMEs with cost-effective solutions to establish their online presence, reach target markets, and compete with larger players.

2. Exporters targeting multiple markets: Exporters who are targeting multiple foreign markets can benefit from IBT Online's expertise in website localization and digital marketing. IBT Online can help these exporters create localized websites and implement tailored digital marketing strategies for each target market, ensuring effective communication and engagement with potential customers in different regions.

In most countries, more than half of internet users buy online at least once a week. In Canada, 51% shop online while in the USA it is 57%, and in places like Thailand, Mexico, Singapore, it is well above 60%. In this blog we look at how companies can leverage ecommerce platform Shopify to grow their brands and sales internationally.

Going global poses specific challenges beyond the obvious logistic issues: how does your international buyer persona find you and how do you engage and create the buying experience needed to ensure carts go right through to the purchase across different markets?

Going global means going local: maximising Shopify’s capabilities, combined with precision online marketing and local market expertise, ensures your brand is easy to find, connects with your local buyer persona and builds the trust you need to get purchases over the payment line.

As an official Shopify Partner, IBT Online helps our clients leverage Shopify to go global - read on to see how.

Vapor Pin Enterprises, Inc. patented the Vapor Pin®, which allows environmental professionals a means of collecting high-quality, low-cost soil gas samples within minutes. Vapor Pin was seeking to grow their brand internationally and identified as their first target market. Vapor Pin recognized that website localization can give your business a competitive advantage, helping your brand stand out in a crowded digital landscape. This task can also appear daunting to many companies as it requires market expertise and digital skills that might not be available in-house. For this reason, Vapor Pin called upon IBT Online to help them achieve their exporting objectives. IBT Online was proud to launch a best-practice, localized business development Brazilian ecommerce website as well as a targeted online marketing strategy to accompany it.

Localizing websites is more than translating a few pages – it involves deep local knowledge, wide technical experience and strong locally-based search engine optimization skills. Ecommerce plug-ins also need to be suited to the local market, taking into account local payment habits, safety and compliance regulations. For Brazilian ecommerce, according to Vice-President Laurie A. Chilcote, “We need to get online in this market”. It was the right time to call in IBT Online to ensure the Brazilian website was launched on-time and on-budget with a full ecommerce platform and online marketing strategy to power up sales.

Given the success of the localized website and strategic marketing efforts in Brazil, Vapor Pin endeavoured to further invest into launching ecommerce websites in other international target markets. As Laurie expresses: "If you want to grow your brand and expand into markets, IBT Online is the company to help you achieve those goals."

Social media is a fantastic way to boost your brand awareness and grow your sales in Mexico. Mexican consumers and businesses are reactive and engaged online: post great relevant content and watch it ricochet around your target prospect base! On top of that, online marketing prices are reasonable compared to many other large markets. So, if you get your social media and online marketing right, the return on investment for brand awareness and the sales that can go with it, are rapid. Below we share some of our insights to the Mexican online world that we use as international marketers to help our clients build their brand, sales and business in Mexico. 

The world wide web was invented 30 years ago and in just one generation has spread to every corner of the Earth and even beyond. The United Nations is debating including access to the web as a fundamental human right. But the risks of the web’s ubiquity are also increasingly clear. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the greatest challenge so far for companies as they scramble to tame their wild west websites. At the core of GDPR is the recognition that online personal data has a value. Who owns it and how should it be treated?

The Florida Online Global (FOG) program has delivered for Avionics Support Group year on year export sales, business and brand growth. In 2017, ASG benefited from their first 2 online global websites in China and Mexico. Returns were rapid, proving a huge export success and ASG followed up with websites for Japan, Brazil, the UAE and Russia. Exports have grown by almost $5 million over this time frame.