Jose Lustre

Expanding to Canada is an aspiration for many US companies. Those who’ve taken that step have found surprising distinctions between the two markets. These differences remain throughout the life of the business and continually present challenges and opportunities for those tasked with managing from south of the border. In this session, Jose discusses lessons learned from a US-based perspective, which can be tips for any company to expand into any country:
• Managing costs and pricing with currency fluctuations
• Addressing the Canadian consumer palate
• Increasing company attention and key stakeholder buy-in on a growing market

Consumers in many markets can’t get the things they want domestically and this presents a significant opportunity for eCommerce centric retailers. However, these retailers face huge hurdles around international pricing, logistics and fulfillment. Our panelists will explain why there has never been a better time to start thinking about your international eCommerce strategy and share lessons on how they overcame their own global barriers:
• Identifying cultural differences in different regions
• Localizing your eCommerce site with different languages as needed
• Analyzing international expansion challenges:
o Creating a global CRM database
o Disconnect with pricing and properly accounting for duty and International shipping
o Monitoring inventory to ensure seasonality and culture
o Logistics, delivery and fulfillment
o Building multi-location warehousing for fulfillment