Survey: Most sites not ready for global commerce

New York – A majority of business websites are not ready for prime time, at least when it comes to global commerce.



According to a new survey from multilingual search agency Oban Digital, while 67% of business executive respondents say that internationalization is a key part of their growth strategy, only 20% of businesses have all of their current online communications adapted for local culture or language, a key driver of sales success.



Forty-one percent of respondents said that at least some of their communications are customized for international consumption and yet almost 30% of businesses recognize that they simply “did not do enough of it,” when it comes to internationalizing their business communications.



Other findings of interest from the study:



• The three most common barriers to internationalization are cost, the additional overhead added to the communications process, and the business having other priorities.



• Only 11% of businesses see internationalization as being too risky or complicated, or something they don’t need.



• Translation and localization services are the most in-demand internationalization requirement.



• The responsibility for internationalization sits firmly in the corporate headquarters, with 46% of companies locating it entirely in their corporate HQ, and 33% having some regional representation.