International Strategy

Toys"R"Us and Li & Fung Retailing have established a joint venture for the Toys"R"Us business in Southeast Asia and greater China. Existing Toys"R"Us licensed operations throughout Asia, which includes more than 100 stores and offices across nine markets, will become 70 percent owned by Toys"R"Us and 30 percent owned by Li & Fung Retailing.

China’s economy has been booming as of late. It’s proven prosperous for a once virtually nonexistent majority of the Chinese population — its middle class. China’s middle class is growing in number, acquiring wealth and improving its standard of living at unprecedented rates. Looking out over the next decade or two, the Chinese middle class is expected to wield enormous spending power as it reaches 600 million people to 800 million people — with more than $2.7 trillion in disposable income.

Amazon has made some big changes to its website in China including a new name and a new short URL. Formerly called “Joyo Amazon” after buying out Joyo.com seven years ago in order to enter China, the name has been simplified to just “Amazon.” The new Z.cn URL serves as an easy-to-remember shortcut to the ongoing Amazon.cn homepage.

Toys"R"Us has established business operations in Poland. The first store will open in Warsaw next month and additional locations are slated to open in major cities in 2012.

Wal-Mart stores in the Chinese city of Chongqing reopened to surging crowds today, two weeks after being shut down by local authorities for violating food and product standards. 

Tiffany & Co. announced plans to open a store in Prague, marking the luxury retailer’s first location in Eastern Europe. The 2,600 square-foot store is scheduled to open in the summer of 2012.

With the economy still in flux here in the U.S., many retailers are looking at possibilities overseas for growing their business. If these retailers want to offer an online store for consumers abroad, it requires much more than just a localized website. They must know the payment expectations, regulations and requirements of the local markets and prospective customers. Retailers need to adapt their customer payment processing specifically for different geographies to support a successful international expansion. But what does that entail? 

Gap is closing stores and downsizing others in the U.S. as it focuses on international expansion, the company said. The long-struggling apparel giant plans to reduce the number of Gap brand stores in North America to 700 by the end of 2013, a 34 percent decrease in the number of those stores when compared to the end of 2007. It didn't specify which stores would close.

Columbia Sportswear said it's expanded its e-commerce operations by launching Columbia and Sorel branded sites in Canada and eight European countries. The new e-commerce sites in Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Austria, Belgium and The Netherlands — combined with existing sites in the United States, Korea and Japan — give the outdoor apparel and footwear brand 24 localized e-commerce operations in 12 countries.

Gap is growing its footprint in Latin America through franchising. The company will open its first stores in South America in Chile this month through a partnership with locally based merchant Komax. Gap will also introduce Gap and Banana Republic stores to Panama and Colombia in 2012.