Many are asking should you invest in Alibaba as the Chinese internet trading company heads towards a float on the New York Stock Exchange. If the question you’re asking is Ali-what? then read on.
E-commerce is more than eBay and Amazon. Don’t limit yourself to Western platforms if you have international trading ambitions, adopt a global mindset. Alibaba is China’s answer to eBay, and surpasses both Amazon and eBay globally. Meanwhile Souq.com is an auction site serving the United Arab Emirates and a quarter of New Zealand residents use TradeMe.co.nz
Many businesses are trading internationally thanks to the internet. The Internet makes it possible to be small and be a global brand, to make selling low volume profitable. Read a related post Thinking inside the niche
Most businesses have a website, yet more trade could be generated from secondary sites like Alibaba, Souq and TradeMe. Many retailers struggle to survive on the high street yet successfully fight off fierce competition to trade internationally. Steady growth can be achieved with a laptop to list products, and the time to write the descriptions and change the prices for different markets. But it’s not enough to offer the right products; you also need to master the art of writing product listings with words that sell. Read a related post Why an eBay listing may be my greatest legacy
Soon you’ll have a profitable online enterprise. You’ll be sending out parcels, many going overseas. Customers who have been brought within one-click will expect packaging and instructions to come in other languages. I’m not a translator but I will do the final step, taking translated content and adapt it for the UK market. Most recently a series of country guides for a major high street bank. I was brought in to rewrite the English translation, to make it accessible and engaging. It’s a good cost effective approach to bring in a freelance copywriter as you look to do business in other countries. Because today there’s no such thing as a local business, we’re all born global.
But what do you think?