What Role Does Digitization Play in Global Expansion?

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Apurva Palnitkar, Senior Director Marketing, GoDaddy India says that in today's technology-driven world, the adoption of digital tools and strategies has become paramount for small businesses seeking to thrive and expand their presence beyond local boundaries.

SMEs are successfully integrating digital tools into their operations in order to gain competitive edge, improve efficiency, reach a wider customer base, and most importantly in order to go global more effectively. 

Discover the few advantages of going digital as a global SME and make sure to assess your needs, budget, and resources when selecting and implementing digital tools to ensure they align with your business goals. 

Today in Global Small Business: Get Ready for the Wave of Digitization

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

• A rapid wave of digitization over the last few years sparked a significant shift in how businesses make and receive payments. American Express introduces Global Pay, a B2B cross-border payment solution for small businesses.
• The market read the Federal Reserve wrong.  Here's how.
• Here are five things by Gene Marks in technology that happened this past week and how they affect your business.
• Quote of the week: "One of the factors that I believe is the biggest obstacle to transformation is the fear of cannibalization.”— Ganesh Ayyar, Mphasis
• As provided by Gene Marks, more than than 60% of world population will use digital wallets by 2026.  Get ready.
• IRS updates crypto questions for 2022 tax return to include gifts.

Exports to Play a Big Role in India's Economy

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Abhijit Kamra, director, Global Trade, Amazon India, and Dr Avik Sarkar professor, Indian School of Business (ISB), firmly believes that India has all the right ingredients to emerge as a strong export’s hub, ushering in the fourth industrial revolution.

In the 21st century, the power of the internet, combined with rapid digitization levels and use of machine learning and artificial intelligence can lead the nationals and citizens of India to the vision of Exports 2.0.  Exports 2.0 will enable small businesses to reach customers worldwide and create global brands 

This vision can empower millions of MSMEs across India to benefit from global market access, integration with global supply chains and enable them to create global brands. 

Transforming Global Business Forever

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According to a McKinsey Global Survey of executives, their companies have accelerated the digitization of their customer and supply-chain interactions and of their internal operations by three to four years – transforming global business forever.

Selling and Buying Things Online Creates New Customers

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Buying and selling things online creates new customers. What's more interesting is how the ubiquity of ecommerce has fed into the other technologies and trends, including the call for better trust mechanisms, global demand, eco-friendliness and the construction of an Industrial Internet of Things for freight carriers.

Digitization is an ongoing process that's proving consequential in nearly every industry. This is certainly true of freight shipping, where digitization, along with online shopping, global marketplaces and new productivity technologies, have had a lasting impact.

Logistics, cargo handling, last-mile fulfillment, customs and compliance and many other aspects of this business are responding to these and other influences.

Here's why.  Read more about the ways in which digitization and e-commerce changed freight.

Pushing Digitization Across the Asia-Pacific Region

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Fast Track Trade (FTT) is the first Singapore-headquartered operator to provide a blockchain-based digital trade platform to the local SME community.  They are working with Get Go Global (Go) to promote one another's platforms in an effort to push digitization across the Asia-Pacific region.

“It [the platform] allows SMEs to seek business partners and distributors, buy and sell goods, and track shipments. Additionally, it can receive and make payments, access financing and buy insurance via an eco-system of service providers on the FTT platform.”

Learn more here.

Lack of Global Rules

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Participants at the recent first ever cross-border e-commerce conference held in Beijing, China had a specific goal:  to discuss recent developments, challenges, and opportunities, as well as the enormous potential of digital trade.

Out of the discussions came three key factors that are currently limiting the positive potential of cross-border e-commerce.  They are as follows:

1. A lack of global rules
2. Customs solutions for the e-commerce age
3. Coordination is key

Read the complete Information Economy Report 2017: Digitization, Trade and Development, issued at a United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which states 7% of business-to-consumer e-commerce in 2015 crossed national borders, amounting to a total value of around US $189 billion.

Digital Natives, Undefined

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Is Amazon a retailer?  E-commerce giant?  Cloud-computing service provider?  Logistics king?  Fulfillment behemoth?

Organizations such as these [see below]—digital natives that are not defined or constrained by any one industry—may seem like outliers.

Focusing on other companies such as Rakuten Ichiba (Japan) and Tencent (China), it becomes tough to categorize the industries these firms are operating in.  Why should we?

It's clear that digitization is shifting industry boundaries.

Read more ...