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To: Eashoa' M'sheekha who wrote (178)	4/1/2000 10:40:00 AM
From: Eashoa' M'sheekha	Respond to of 960

Commerce sites must address cultural differences By Sandra Mingail North American e-commerce companies must nurture cross-cultural expertise -- or risk alienating European and Asian-Pacific customers. By 2003, more than 50% of all Web content will consist of non-English material. According to industry watchdog World Watch Institute, dramatic increases in online use will occur by native speakers of Spanish, Portuguese, German, Japanese, Chinese and Scandinavian. Many European communities already maintain a global business mindset. Recent figures from market researcher the Gartner Group indicate that 80% of European-based corporate sites are multilingual. In fact, many Europeans perceive North American sites as provincial in nature - more concerned with self-promotion than fulfilling user needs. North Americans bask in technical prowess and high-speed Internet access. Yet their sensitivities to conducting business across cultural boundaries fall short. "Communication doesn't take place in a vacuum," states Dr. Jake Shafai, PRofessor of Management and International Business Studies at Dalhousie University, in Canada. "It is always in a context, which is called culture." Over the Web, context is often disregarded. This can lead to serious miscommunication and alienation of an audience. According to Shafai, there are high-context and low-context cultures. Low-context cultures, such as Nordic countries and most of North America, rely on words and verbal communication to convey meaning. High-context cultures --like Middle Eastern and Asian cultures-draw meaning from their environment. "Because high-context countries don't rely on words as much as context, this is going to be a problem [with regards to e-commerce], " says Shafi. Cross-cultural research points out vital differences. Asians for instance, tend to be sensitive to imagery, mood and symbolism. Blatant product comparisons are outlawed in parts of Asia. Latin Americans prefer imagery and are less receptive to hard sell. German audiences prefer linear arguments and facts. On the Web, in the absence of face-to-face contact, the need to address cultural differences is amplified. Do Web pages inadvertently reflect a cultural bias? How are certain colors, fonts and text size perceived? North American-centricity prevails. A recent survey by the US Federal Trade Commission compared business practices of US and non-US Web sites. Overall, 38% of sites disclosed the applicable currency to make purchases from their company. Yet only 11% of US sites stated relevant currency rates. Furthermore, only 29% of US sites stated their country, compared to 79% of non-US corporations. While cultural variances may dictate one Web strategy over another, technical constraints confine implementation. High-context Asian customers would welcome sophisticated imagery and streaming audio and video. But overseas infrastructures are still too immature to handle the bandwidth. sites. Attention to cultural, let alone geographic diversity is low on the development priority list. So, foreign visitors stumble across sites where their country code is excluded from order information. Customer service hours are included only in relation to the 12-hour clock and not the more common European 24-hour clock. Online shoppers spend time filling their virtual shopping basket, only to discover there is no overseas shipment. Globally attuned corporations are responding to the inadequacy of this approach with their own breed of niche marketing. Nortel Networks has a long history of tracking the country and language of origin of its online visitors. Armed with this data, the company claims to meet the needs of culturally diverse clients. "We've identified a strategy of actually being able to make sure that we're cognizant of the cultures and being able to be flexible with the content and the languages," explains Tim Chandler, director of e-business development for Nortel. Nortel's built a modular infrastructure for their corporate site. According to Mr. Chandler, this allows for consistent user experience and builds global brand awareness, but it also allows the flexibility for regional input of content. "Corporations must learn to accept the fact that there are other considerations equally important than just the bottom line," cautions Dr. Shafai. Successful global e-commerce sites must scale the fine line between site management, cost-effectiveness and cultural appropriateness