Tackling Logistics of Foreign Trade

By Jennifer Kraft

Telling retailers that the Internet eliminates barriers and forces them to think of their business plans and marketing strategies in terms of the new, global economy is kind of like telling them that it would be a good idea to have some DVD players on hand this Christmas—it's all pretty obvious and the message has been reiterated again and again and, well, again.

But just because international consumers have access to a retailer's Web site and a retailer has access to an international supplier's does not mean that the process is easy. In fact, the complexities of foreign trade are so great that many eRetailers leave the market virtually untapped.