Time to Go Overseas?

A weakened U.S. dollar, the presence of global traffic on U.S. Web sites and a competitive domestic market with little room for growth have combined to pique U.S. catalogers’ interest in overseas markets.

Adapting your catalog for an international market often involves rewriting and translating copy into a foreign language, pricing in local currency, and offering customers the ability to pay in their local currencies.

“All of this requires a significant investment of time and money, and very rarely do catalogers make this type of investment for a test,” says Mark Bridges, vice president and director of the international division of Mokrynski & Associates, a list management and brokerage firm.

A popular alternative, he says, is to adapt your catalog order form for use in global markets and mail it with your U.S. catalog. This doesn’t require a large financial investment or commitment to a single market. It’s also cheaper than reprinting your full catalog in another language, because the order form can be printed as a separate piece and bound into the catalog. When adapting your order form for a foreign market: