Internet Company Brings American Products to Japan

Fast forward to the year 2000. In the Connecticut suburb of South Norwalk, about an hour from New York City, sit 20 native Japanese speakers working long hours in front of PCs. Employees of an American company called US-Style.com, they are on the front line of a nascent, but growing, effort to sell American-made products to the world via the Internet. From CDs to Hollywood paraphernalia to specialty foods, the idea behind US-Style, says CEO Maxwell Thomas, is to bring the latest trendy products in the States quickly to Japan through a virtual mall. While Internet sales of U.S. goods to U.S. consumers have climbed greatly in recent years, Internet sales of U.S. goods to foreign consumers - facing many technical and cultural barriers - have been fairly low. Indeed, analysts say, many U.S. companies, lacking the in-house resources to sell directly to foreign consumers via the Internet, are simply turning those consumers away. The most significant barrier to global Internet commerce, analysts say, is language. "If you want to reach the foreign consumer, you_ve really got to do it in the native language," says Bob Rosenthal, an analyst with the International Data Corp., which analyzes and forecasts worldwide IT markets and technology trends. It_s also helpful, says Rosenthal, to be able to accept local currency, allow for multiple means of payment, provide native language phone support, and have a good understanding of the country_s customs and import-export rules and local delivery practices. That_s where US-Style hopes to come in, acting as the middleman, providing the technical and cultural expertise to bring U.S. producers and foreign consumers together. US-Style markets the products in the native language, processes orders and collects payment from the foreign consumer, integrates orders into the U.S. retailer_s operation, and arranges direct delivery to the custome.