How to Prep Accordingly for Holiday eCommerce Sales

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The holiday eCommerce selling season can be a real challenge — and a profit-booster, provided you prep accordingly.  I [Laurel Delaney] asked four eCommerce CEOs a handful of questions about how they plan, prepare and execute global sales during holiday crunch time.

Here are their answers.

10 Tips to Get You Ready for International Expansion

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Back in the day when I was selling food products overseas, I [Laurel Delaney] received an order for one million bags of snacks. At the time, I was just getting started exporting food products, and a customer in Japan wanted to import the snacks for sale at a major baseball park.

My reaction? You can probably imagine.  It went from a feeling of euphoria to panic:  how will we ever service the order? 

It was a sign we had to go global or remain local. Let’s use my experience to walk through 10 tips to get you ready — just as I had to — for international expansion.

Read more to find out whether your business is ready for international expansion.

How to Be the King or Queen of Accessibility

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In the article below, I talk about twelve (12) ways to position a business for global success.  One of them is this:

11. Be the king or queen of accessibility.
Positioning for success worldwide means making sure when your employees, customers, suppliers and colleagues need you, they get you. Nothing gets accomplished without constant communication. That means going back to your website or blog and eliminating an info@email address and adding a real person’s email address to address questions, concerns or raves about your company’s products or services.

Read all the takeaways here.

Laurel Delaney's Cheat Sheet to Growing a Global Business

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From choosing the right market to learning how to set prices thoughtfully, this is your cheat sheet to growing a global business. Here's an article I [Laurel Delaney] penned for GoDaddy.

GoGlobal GoDaddy

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The impact of creating an online presence for small businesses can be significant -- oftentimes enabling SMEs to increase their business by 25 percent or more.  That's why GoDaddy recently launched in 11 Asian markets, bringing its suite of cloud-based products and expert customer care to millions of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across the region.

GoDaddy is now in a total of 10 languages and 14 markets across Asia.

Small and medium enterprises serve as the economic backbone in Asia. SMEs account for over 97% of all enterprises and employ over half of the workforce across APEC economies.  Source: http://www.apec.org/Groups/SOM-Steering-Committee-on-Economic-and-Technical-Cooperation/Working-Groups/Small-and-Medium-Enterprises.aspx

Read more:  GoDaddy Continues Global Expansion With Launch in 11 Markets Across Asia

Once you secure a domain name, how do you protect it further?  Find out here.

Are Small Businesses Plugged Into the Internet?

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According to a landmark global survey commissioned by GoDaddy, most very small businesses aren't fully plugged into the Internet.  Why is that?  Could it be that the businesses are just too small for the Internet?

There are over 200 million small businesses in the world, but for many, making the leap to have their own website is challenging: survey respondents said they hadn't had the time, money or expertise to create a website.

These small businesses -- 59 percent of them -- claim that they don't have their own website.

Read more:  Very small businesses poised to go online for first time, with huge expectations

Today in Global Small Business: Bad News For Egg Lovers Worldwide

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• Why Alibaba founder Jack Ma gets it that women are a driving force in our global economy. 
• Why GoDaddy has launched a global brand agency request for proposal to help promote its brand globally.
• How women are changing the world of transportation.  Got a bike?
• Why the peak of 'free' on the Internet may be diminishing.
• Three reasons why you can't afford not to go global.
• Bad news for egg lovers (producers, exporters and importers alike).

Today in Global Small Business: Time to Go

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• How GoDaddy is radically shifting the global economy toward global small businesses (It's time to go!).
• How Ex-Im Bank fills the gap in the trade finance market for U.S. Businesses.
• Why the future of global search is personalized and local.
• How Rework America will help job seekers and small businesses.
• Why more Americans will be optimistic about their chances for learning, training and employment.
• Five tips for a successful international launch campaign.