¿Local or International E-commerce?

Some years ago, when I was studding my postgraduate on E-commerce, I remember a teacher said that if we created an online store to stay in our city we shouldn’t even think in opening it. I know he was exaggerating and that his point was that Internet and ecommerce have great potential, but I think many factors come together when we are deciding if our Internet sales are going to be across borders, or on any context that is greater.

The first decision factor we should take into account is the type of product. Even if this sounds obvious I want to talk about this subject. Not all products can be exported; even some products cannot go out of our city such as fast food.

The second decision factor takes into account our company. With this I am referring to its structure and alliances. Even if we have an excellent platform that can be seen from any part on the world, not always we have the best internal structure and alliances in order to take our products to other parts of the globe. Companies require these capacities and that as a world showcase it is capable to attend all the clients’ requirements. If we don’t have this structure we shouldn’t even think in an international ecommerce and stay local.

Finally, other element we must consider before deciding which countries are we going to serve is their legislation and conditions. Today many countries have situations that will make difficult for us to serve them. This is why it might be better to open gradually our presence in other countries according to their legislation and situation. This will make it much more easier for us.

Image taken from Flickr.com