This article from a Harvard Business Publishing blog cites recent studies showing that China may have the worlds largest market for luxury goods in the near future. What caught my eye in the post was this statistic:

And Chinese consumers engage with brands online. Almost 90% of the respondents in the China Luxury Forecast say they use the Internet to gain a better understanding of luxury brands and products. Over 310 million people in China have the Internet, and the world's top blogger in terms of visits is Chinese — Xu Jinglei. In this way, China is very similar to the US in that companies can support their marketing efforts with effective online communication.

Many organizations that I work with have significant global strategies going into action, looking to extend their mission and value across the world. As this story shows, your website is a key platform for engaging with overseas markets even before you have a physical presence or partnership set up in their country.

How well does your web presence address and engage with visitors from your future global markets? It’s not as simple as just translating some content. See this article I wrote last year for more on this topic.