The phenomenal growth of marketplaces has made them attractive vehicles for global commerce, with relatively low barriers to entry and opportunities to uncover valuable foreign market and consumer data. Other forms of global commerce, from DTC online sales to in-country retailing, are being affected more strongly by world events — witness the retailers that left Russia following that country’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
- Five important questions retailers and brands need to consider as they pursue global growth;
- The ways marketplaces like Alibaba can help not only with selling but also sourcing products with advanced visual search tools, VR and livestreaming;
- 2023’s global growth “hot spots”; and
- The impact of more than 1 billion digital natives, located in eight African and Asian countries, who already are (or soon will be entering) their prime spending years as consumers.
