Most e-commerce businesses have an advantage over traditional ventures when it comes to expanding around the globe.
Much of this is due to the fact that an online store can be visited by anyone with Internet access regardless of which country they are in. You could open such a shop in the UK and be able to serve shoppers from the U.S. or any other part of the world which is connected to the web.
Obviously, just because a customer is able to visit your website does not necessarily mean that you will be able to fulfil their potential order. Often, mainly when selling tangible goods, you could simply not be able to ship the item to that shopper. This could be because it is either not feasible financially or just not physically possible.
One of the ways around the latter problem is to hire a fulfilment company in a country from which you are confident that you will receive many orders. This way you will be able to offer your product to consumers in that country at more competitive prices and also be able to have it delivered to them much quicker.
Another reason why it is easier for online businesses to trade in a number of different countries is because a website can be quickly translated to help appeal to a wide range of nationalities.
Being able to take payments in local currencies is now quite straight forward too. You just need to apply for a multi-currency merchant account and ensure that your shopping cart can display prices and totals in different tenders.
Importantly you won't even need an office in several different countries as you will be more than capable to run the whole operation from the UK.
The Internet gives a chance to even the smallest of businesses to become global ventures. At a time when the economy at home is not growing and consumer spending has fallen it is an opportunity many will want to explore.