International Business and Technology Blog

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!

Finding and nurturing international distributors

Bulman Products is a 100-year old privately owned manufacturer that relies on a dense distributor network to sell its quality rolled paper cutters and dispensers. This means that getting the right distributor is key. But new distributors need to be constantly recruited to feed the group’s international expansion and all of them need marketing support. This is not easy across multiple industries and markets.

A global business challenge

Kasco’s challenge was how to support an international distributor network. As a recognized global supplier of pond aerators, fountains and de-icing equipment, Kasco has over 30 distributors across the world and is committed to supplying them with great marketing material as well as helping them generate new leads. In its home USA market, the company uses its website to support its domestic sales reps and to showcase its know-how. Management knew that an online solution was the best way to grow their global business cost effectively but how to do it?

Ecommerce customers – whether businesses or private consumers – want a wide choice of products, delivery times and methods, low transport costs and hassle-free returns. These three magic ingredients: choice, low transport costs and easy returns, are not always simple, especially in Europe with its 24 official languages, EU and non-EU legislation and other complexities. Ecommerce in Europe looks a whole lot harder than in the USA. Is it worth it? A growing number of companies think so, encouraged by continuing strong demand. Ecommerce in Germany, for example, topped €52 billion in 2016 and is set for more double-digit growth in 2017.

Reviewing online options

Management at All World Machinery Supply (AWM) knew it was time to update their website. Besides being unable to showcase all their product lines, the home website wasn’t even mobile-enabled: a must in today’s multi-platform business world. The company is also growing  internationally and wanted to reflect their expanding global presence.

Check out our IBT Online brand evolution. The IBT success story began in 2002, when we were delivering first class international business development services, helping hundreds of small and medium sized companies to expand globally. Since that time, the digital disruption has transformed the traditional exporting and global business development rulebook. Today, global sustainable sales, brand and business success is impossible without a strong online component. 

At IBT Online, our focused and core strategy for tomorrow is clear: to create value for our corporate clients by deploying innovative online technologies, website localization and international online marketing services, that deliver measurable growth in global sales, brands and businesses.

The State International Development Organizations, Inc. (SIDO) is the premiere U.S. organization dedicated to supporting state international trade agencies, whose mission statement states “SIDO provides state trade promotion professionals with a forum for collaboration and sharing best practices as well as advocates for states’ international trade development issues so that U.S. companies remain globally competitive”.

SIDO recognized IBT Online with the “Champion of Trade” Award for its successful Online Global program, working directly with small to medium-sized exporters, helping them grow their sales, brands and businesses globally. The award was presented to John Worthington, IBT Online CEO, by Manny Mencia, SIDO President, (Manny is also SVP International Trade and Development at Enterprise Florida, the public-private partnership between Florida’s business and government leaders and is the principal economic development organization for Florida) at the annual SIDO Best Practices and Training Forum in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Website globalization is now recommended by ExporTech. Website globalization means fully customized and localized websites that deliver sales, brand and business growth in far flung markets around the globe. ExporTech is the US national export assistance program that helps companies enter and expand in global markets. ExporTech, recognizes that the digital disruption has transformed exporting and international business.

In today’s online world it is essential to include website globalization in export strategy, alongside planning, education, training, trade fairs and other export supporting programs. US Chambers of Commerce have long recognized that Corporate America’s #1 marketing and sales tool is their online presence and nowhere more so than when going international. As part of the Exportech range of programs, website globalization will now “help participating companies go-to-market and implement their export growth plans”.

An Online Global presence means creating, building and delivering website localization and international online marketing to deliver sales, brand and business growth in far flung markets across the globe. Companies looking to go global often ask us, just like in Love Story, “where do I begin?”. The answer, as per the song, is with the “first hello”.

Most companies today have their core domestic website – for US companies it is generally the .com English language website. But to grow your sales, brands and businesses globally in today’s multi-national, multi-cultural and multi-lingual world, Online Global has become a business necessity. Check out some of these amazing stats about the top languages in the internet, as well as the growth and number of non-English websites and e/mcommerce platforms. You can’t compete anymore with a traditional English-only .com website.

The land grab for internet users in India is in full swing and nowhere more so than in ecommerce. India now has the second largest number of internet users in the world, behind China, but this still means that about 65% of India’s population is not yet on the internet. While there are many Indian tech companies there are surprisingly few independent internet players, leaving the field open to the internet giants of the world. Google, with a historically impenetrable 96% market share in India, is facing serious competition from Chinese search engine giant Baidu. Amazon and Alibaba are dividing up online retail, gobbling up homegrown talent while Uber, Facebook and others all look for a slice of the cake.