Economic Powerhouses: Go bonkers for Brazil’s booming economy

In this first article in our series on Powerhouse Economies we look at Brazil. In 3 years’ time the 2016 Rio Olympics is going to be one carnival-clad party with feathers galore and the world’s eyes firmly locked on everything Brazil has to offer.

Highly populated, historically rich and boasting an annual economic growth rate of 4.5% for the last 50 years, Brazil is a global player. From Agriculture to Construction, Brazilian manufacturers and foreign investors alike are in party mode and UK businesses are invited to join. So, here’s your ticket for everything you need to know to discover whether your business will strike Gold by expanding services or products into Brazil.

What’s your flavour? Pepsi variations around the world

Learning from Pepsi - one size (or flavour) does not fit all.

To suit the varying taste buds of customers around the world, Pepsi has come up with around 100 different flavours for international markets.

The strangest Pepsi flavours

Among the strangest flavours are Pepsi Ice Cream, Pepsi Fire (hot cinnamon flavour) and Pepsi Ice (mint flavour), sold in several markets including Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam.

Where in the world is the easiest place to do business?

According to the World Bank’s annual Ease of Doing Business Report, the answer is Singapore. In fact, there’s nothing new there as Singapore has held the top spot for the last seven years.

What might be more surprising is that the report’s global top improver for the last year was Poland, climbing the ranks from its previous position at 74th to its new spot at number 55. While 55th position might not sound all that impressive, it means that in the space of a year the country has made it much easier to do business. It’s achieved this by introducing four institutional or regulatory reforms which make it easier to register property, pay taxes, enforce contracts and resolve insolvency.

As well as Poland, other economies identified as improving the ease of doing business are Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Burundi, Costa Rica, Mongolia, Greece, Serbia and Kazakhstan. Across the world, a total of 108 economies implemented 201 regulatory reforms to make it easier to do business. Globally, these efforts have focused on making it easier to start a new business, increasing the efficiency of tax administration and facilitating international trade (a full list can be seen here: http://www.doingbusiness.org/reforms/overview/topic/trading-across-borders).

Top tips on translating e-commerce websites

The business landscape has changed dramatically over recent years, and today we compete in a fast-paced and ever-growing global marketplace.

These days the vast majority of successful businesses understand the importance of using an e-commerce website to sell online to their customers; but surprisingly many are still missing out on a potentially huge share of the international market.

Research consistently shows that customers would rather buy from websites in their own language. When you consider that there are roughly 1.5 billion non-English speaking internet users, and that global e-commerce spending is expected to grow by around 13.5% a year over the next few years, can you afford for your e-commerce website not to communicate effectively within the global marketplace?

How UK companies can access billions from global e-commerce markets

Stats show that online shoppers are on the increase every day, and they’re spending more and more too. In Europe alone there are 240 million shoppers each spending in the region of £840 every year. Your company can access these shoppers, and their wallets, with ease and speed.

In 20 years the e-commerce phenomenon has soared. Amazon and eBay launched in 1995 and changed the way people shopped. E-commerce is now an unstoppable powerhouse that’s predicted to increase by 13.5% over the next 3 years. (Cisco Systems Research).