For today’s businesses, navigating the continuous change of the global landscape can be challenging. But with consumers embracing international brands, combined with more favourable economic conditions in other parts of the world, the opportunities of international expansion may outweigh the challenges.
Businesses considering international growth can tap into new markets where demand is growing for their products — while also exploring new innovation, finding fresh talent and forging important partnerships.
From tapping into geo-diversification and decoding the global consumer to leveraging AI for global success, business leaders from here in Australia and New Zealand, and abroad in Europe share their experiences to help propel your expansion strategy.
Global marketplace: Prioritise geo-diversification to achieve success
Planning for international expansion is even more relevant today, as businesses in Australia and New Zealand are increasingly looking beyond traditional markets. Governments are responding by making investment commitments and trade agreements, like those recently established with India and South-East Asia, making it even easier to access — and thrive — in emerging markets. In addition, the growing affluent-populations and increasing digital adoption in these markets makes them even more attractive for businesses.
And the potential for global growth and geo-diversification is substantial. For example, cross-border e-commerce is expected to grow at a 26% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR),1 reaching a market size of almost $8 trillion USD by 2030.2 In contrast, domestic retail growth in Australia is expected to see a 5% CAGR during the same period.3 This trend underscores the importance of expanding internationally to capture new opportunities.
At Google, we use an international growth framework to guide brands toward global success, with geo-diversification as a key pillar. This approach spreads risk and builds resilience by establishing a global presence in diverse markets, helping businesses find new opportunities or strategically retreat from others.
To help you get started on your international journey, you can leverage our simple international growth framework of the 3D's — Define, Decide and Deliver:
Define success: What are your precise international expansion goals? Increased revenue? Increased profitability? Diversify risk? Clearly articulate these objectives to provide a strategic compass.
Decide where to play: Markets may not always be uniformly receptive, so Market Finder can help you prioritise regions or countries by sowing data like GDP growth, key cultural moments and more. Do a thorough analysis to consider market size, potential competition, ease of entry, and alignment with your product or service offering.
Deliver a localised experience: Not all markets are the same, so customisation is key. Develop tailored, market-specific strategies informed by cultural nuances, language, consumer preferences, and local regulations.
Globalisation begins from day one: Intend to be globally relevant from the onset
Born in Bells Beach and Fitzroy, Bellroy is an Australian business with a global perspective. From the beginning, our focus wasn’t on growing from an Australian base, but rather on building a business that resonated globally. And we were able to expand internationally with constant experimentation.
Bellroy’s goal has always been to create a new category of durable and sustainable goods — what we call ''Carry'' — uniting various market segments. Our target audience isn’t defined by geography, but by those seeking products that help them move through the world with ease. When evaluating new international markets, we assess demand, logistics, ease of doing business, digital presence, wholesale opportunities, and the potential to leverage paid media channels like Google. Ultimately, our goal is to provide a great customer experience and connect with those who resonate with our brand.
Our Google Ads journey began before digital advertising became mainstream, and we focused on delivering a strong brand experience for those who clicked on our ads. This approach quickly impacted our growth. I remember when we were selling seven wallets a day, and after launching Google Ads, that number increased 4X to 30 wallets a day in a matter of weeks. That seems small by today’s numbers, with daily wallet sales now in the hundreds, but it showed us the demand was out there — and we used Google Ads to scale and find similar benefits in our bag, phone case and accessory categories too.
As global orders increased, we used data to decide where to set up new warehouses, improving the customer experience. Google Ads played a key role in this, helping us reach customers in the U.K., U.S., Canada, Japan, and Singapore, and engaging them with our vision of ''Carry.''
To businesses on their own international journey, my advice is to experiment, measure the impact, and stay flexible. Establish systems that will support growth, and listen closely to your customers. Ensure you have products that solve problems in the markets you're entering, and create universal stories that can be tailored locally. Set up translation, shipping, and payment solutions that fit each region. Tackling challenges like global sales tax and logistics becomes easier with a team committed to the global journey. These combined efforts have enabled Bellroy to trade globally and connect with customers around the world.
Globalise, standardise, localise: Harmonise a global approach with localised nuances to create a winning strategy
Flight Centre, the flagship brand of an Australian-born international travel company, is now recognised as one of the world's largest leisure travel retailers with an omnichannel offering. With international presence for the last 40 years, we’ve had plenty of time to perfect a framework for our international strategy: “Globalise, standardise and localise”. First, we identify what’s working well across markets, and use it to create a global blueprint. We then standardise aspects that can be adopted across markets. Finally, we localise to fit the individual needs of each market.
For a brand to grow globally, it's not enough to only have big, national campaigns. You also need to connect with people in specific cities and even down to individual stores. For us that means using Google's Director Mix technology. This lets us truly localise store marketing, with individual videos personalised to a user's location. Or, we can leverage the same creative across markets to maintain brand consistency while tweaking the voiceover in the ad to a local accent.
To succeed internationally, you also need to tap into local audience nuances. For international travel brands like ours, it means adapting to different seasons and holiday calendars. At Flight Centre, we have global standards, while empowering local teams to lean into regional insights to differentiate and maximise effectiveness. For example, this could be customising special offers, the email schedule or app notifications. This also extends beyond our website to our stores where we have a standardised consulting process but we localise our product types and payment methods to suit the needs of the local market.
As part of our core global strategy, we now leverage AI-powered ad products such as Performance Max and Dynamic Search Ads — empowering our brand assets at scale while maintaining relevance and effectiveness.
I’d advise businesses expanding internationally to consider the long-term market size and potential. Plus, look at the competition, your own unique proposition, and most importantly, the expense of entering a new market.
Coming to America: Grow in the U.S. with a personalised, state-by-state strategy
At Mango, one of Europe’s leading fashion brands, we are strengthening our presence in the U.S. with an ambitious expansion plan.
U.S. expansion is very different to growing a business in Spain or Ireland — as it’s like reaching 50 countries at the same time. Start by activating your performance marketing campaigns in just a few states that have the potential for strong profitability, such as New York, California, Texas, and Florida as they’re the most densely populated.
For us, personalisation and localisation have been central to our U.S. expansion plans. We use Keyword Planner to monitor searches for colours and patterns, but also adapt regionally. For example, we’re working on using temperature and climatology data to show the most relevant products on our website in different states based on local weather conditions.
Language is another important consideration as there is a lot of diversity in the U.S., with 13% of the population speaking Spanish at home,4 making it the most common non-English language. I recommend testing the multi-language option on your website — we’ve included Spanish on ours — and using generative AI to create relevant local content for ads and improve local product descriptions.
Finally, look at logistics as the U.S. is such a vast country. We currently have a warehouse on the east coast and are working on opening one on the west coast too to meet customers’ delivery expectations.
And whether you’re expanding to another market in Europe or to the U.S. the strategic foundations remain the same. To ensure success, everyone in the company needs to be aligned and work towards the same growth objectives.
