E-commerce opportunities exist worldwide and vary considerably in type from country to country, and U.S. companies who do not market to international online consumers are ignoring potential revenue streams, according to market analyst International Data Corp. (IDC).
Companies in the financial services, computer hardware, computer software and the media industry will have a greater opportunity to expand their sales overseas and increase their revenues compared to their competitors who focus exclusively on U.S.-centric audiences, IDC said in a report released Tuesday.
For example, IDC said, Internet users in China are more willing to buy stocks and investments online (26 percent of users) than in the U.S. (24 percent). The leading country in this category is Sweden at 27 percent, according to IDC.
While the U.S. has the highest proportion of consumers prepared to buy computer hardware online (69 percent), several countries, including Korea (53 percent), Venezuela (59 percent), Puerto Rico (67 percent), United Kingdom (59 percent) and Japan (54 percent) are attractive targets for U.S. companies, IDC said.
The percentage of Internet users in the U.S. willing to buy software online (69 percent) is eclipsed by users in Venezuela (75 percent) and is closely followed by users in Brazil, Netherlands, Australia and Japan (68 percent each).
In particular, media and content companies need to look outside the U.S., as 11 of the 25 countries surveyed, including Argentina (47 percent), Peru (45 percent), Germany (43 percent),and China (38 percent), had a higher percentage of people willing to buy information than the U.S. (37 percent).
Among countries prepared to conduct cross-border commerce online, Chile, Venezuela, (76 percent), Puerto Rico (75 percent) and Malaysia (74 percent) led the way, eclipsing the worldwide average of 52 percent.
IDC identified Korea as a promising market for many types of e-commerce due to its high Internet penetration rate and growth projection, as well as the small number of dialects necessary to cater to for local language content.
IDC is a subsidiary of International Data Group Inc., the parent company of IDG News Service.
IDC Corp., in Framingham, Massachusetts, can be reached at +1-508-872-8200 or at http://www.idc.com/.