The conclusion, from the Chemical Industries Association 2nd quarter member company business survey, found 87% of businesses believe exports will either remain the same or increase over the next 12 months, (Chemical Industry Journal Winter 2016).

This is further confirmed by the “Exporting is great” campaign (www.exportingisgreat.gov.uk) in which they highlight “The demand is out there. You should be too.” This website offers valuable advice and support for those “New to Exporting”, “Occasional Exporter” and “Exporting regularly”.

However, with every ‘key success factors’ there will be a ‘failure’ and one these has been identified as the ‘Cost is too high’.  But this doesn’t have to be the case if reaching to overseas customers online. This can be a very cost effective and efficient way of entering the overseas market. The important factor is to ensure that the website is translated correctly by native professional translators who work in the target language and can localise the text. Otherwise however good the intentions, the website will have no credibility. Maybe this is a factor for ‘failure’. We’d be interested at TW Languages to see if the translation of your website has been a success or failure.

Further advice on ‘how to get the best from online marketplaces that let you trade across multiple countries” can be found on the following website:  https://www.exportingisgreat.gov.uk/reach-overseas-customers-online.