Cross-Border Selling Challenges

If you ever visit Bali, you'll notice a flood of Polo Ralph Lauren stores... All selling Polo apparel at almost 60% off the retail price... And despite the on point branding of the stores, they're all fake - not the original Polo Ralph Lauren... And this is because in the late 1970s, an Indonesian man trademarked the brand name, colours and logo in Indonesia, much before the American company decided to enter into that market. So all the stores can legally operate under the Ralph Lauren name and with the logo, but are not owned by the original American company we know of. Plus, the original brand cannot sell its products in Indonesia. And so that the same thing doesn't happen with your brand anywhere around the world... you must take these steps while registering your trademark... 1/ After registration of your trademark at the Indian Trademark Office (ITO), within six months file for a global trademark that is valid in 130 countries through a WIPO application which happens from the ITO itself In certain countries like China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and Japan - also make a separate filing independent of the WIPO application - as these countries have a first-to-file method, which means if someone else files before you, they get the right even if you have been using the brand for longer 2/ To increase defensibility, also register variations of your trademark in other languages such as Chinese, Arabic - as well as trademark common misspellings of your name 3/ Consider getting a trademark not just in the same category in which you currently operate, but allied categories where you may operate in the future as well - for example, an apparel brand may want to enter bags, shoes, or even cosmetics, watches and sunglasses later. These days, even as small D2C brands begin to sell online and start getting orders from NRIs outside of India - it becomes important to protect your brand not just in your country of origin, but even elsewhere. #casarthakahuja

If you want to understand the cross-border #payments’ trends and #future, then this is a key list. My highlights from the OMFIF future of payments 2024 report, just published: 1. CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies): -      Multi-CBDCs are emerging as alternatives to existing cross-border payments systems. -      Multi-CBDCs aim to 1) improve efficiency 2) reduce costs 3) challenge incumbent infrastructure by enabling transactions in local currencies. -      Project mBridge remains the most advanced multi-CBDC platform: · MVP stage in June 2024 · 32 observing members (out of which 28 central banks) · Biggest limitations for widespread adoption 1) liquidity 2) governance -      Interoperability models of CBDC design a key consideration. -      Faith in connecting CBDCs to improve x-border payments has dropped sharply 2. Correspondent banking: -      A $200 bn annual revenue business -      Compliance complexity is the number 1 driver keeping costs up -      Standardization (i.e. ISO 20022) is the way to reduce costs, but implementation has been a challenge (only 66% of surveyed institutions are likely to meet the November 2025 transition deadline). -      APIs and #AI are the main technologies to improve CB and bring down costs -      Fintechs have spotted the opportunity and are challenging banks 3. Tokenization: -      Tokenization can 1) streamline compliance checks 2) improve settlement efficiency 3) unlock new functionality -      Despite the growing popularity of stablecoins, the official sector remains skeptical of ceding control of tokenized cash to the private sector -      Achieving a cross-border tokenized network will not be easy (governance is the main challenge) -      There are several consortia, both public and private, pursuing tokenization. Project Agorá and Partior are two examples. -      Project Agorá’s goal is to create a platform for wholesale xborder payments including tokenised wholesale CBDC and tokenised commercial bank deposits. 4. Instant payments systems (IPS) -      Rapidly growing in importance - in use in 80 countries worldwide -      India and Brazil in the lead with UPI and Pix respectively -      Interoperability is the main challenge. BIS’s Project Nexus acts as a model by proposing a central hub to standardize the IPS connections (vs bilateral connections that are very difficult to scale) -      However, even central models like Nexus need substantial investment and face maintenance and governance challenges -      Connecting instant payments systems is seen as the most credible option to improve x-border payments Fragmentation remains the key challenge for cross-border payments. Despite promising initiatives across many levels and jurisdictions, we are still far away from an optimal set-up, i.e. a kind of a global payment network. Summary by: Panagiotis Kriaris, source: OMFIF, Future of Payments 2024

📢 EU CBAM is Now Fully Operational: What You Need to Know On January 1, the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) came into full effect. Here are the key things sustainability, finance, and strategy teams should understand: 🔹 An overview CBAM is the first fully operational border carbon pricing system designed to prevent carbon leakage, the shifting of emissions-intensive production outside the EU, while protecting EU firms subject to internal carbon costs. 🔹 What has changed? Unlike prior pilots, the 2026 implementation bases costs on actual emissions intensity of imports. The EU has “externalized” carbon pricing beyond its borders, which has implications for supply chains and global trade flows, especially for goods like steel, aluminum, cement, electricity, fertilizers, and certain chemicals. 🔹 What do companies need to do? Importers and their non-EU suppliers will need to: - Map supply chains and embedded emissions - Coordinate with suppliers on verified emissions data - Assess carbon cost exposure and potential downstream price impacts 📈 The big picture CBAM goes beyond a compliance issue for firms and has real implications for supply chains and operating costs. Investors and businesses are beginning to factor in carbon pricing and supply-chain decarbonization into their financial decisions. We’ve been helping firms manage these shifts and respond strategically. Send me a message if you’d like to learn more. Visual courtesy of Carbonwise #CBAM #EURegulations #CarbonPricing #ClimatePolicy #SustainableTrade #ClimateRisk #SupplyChainEmissions #NetZero #ESG #ClimateFinance #Decarbonization

If you're trying to crack America from a London desk, you've already lost. This week, I hosted a room full of founders at my home, and the conversation kept landing in one market in particular: America. I've watched this play out across thirty years now, from building my own business there to the ones I've backed and the boards I've sat on. Here's what I've learned about expanding into the US: 1. Local talent decides everything. International expansion lives or dies on local talent. Hire someone who calls it "home," not "the US market." If your American strategy runs on a passport and a Zoom link, it isn't a strategy. 2. The economics are brutal before you've even begun. A senior American hire will often expect two or three times what their UK equivalent earns. Notice periods over there are two weeks, not three to six months, which means the operator you bring in had better be capable of hiring their own replacement at pace because your bench will get tested faster than you think. Equity is your friend in that conversation; it's often the only thing that ties the right person to you for the long haul. 3. Partnerships can be the smartest opening move. You get the footprint, the relationships and the local instinct without betting the farm on a market you don't yet understand - and you buy yourself the time to find the right person to plant your flag properly. 4. Know what the right senior leader looks like. Someone who has built and scaled a business in the US before. Someone who already knows where the bodies are buried, who their competitors will be in twelve months, and who picks up the phone when you call. 5. Pay top dollar, or don't bother. When I brought Tom Rusin in to run the US business for HomeServe, I paid him more than I was paying myself. It felt uncomfortable at the time. It was also the single best decision I made in that market. If you're not willing to pay top dollar for the right operator, you're not truly committed to the country, and the market will smell that on you within a quarter. 6. The 15% rule. If more than 15% of your product or model has to change to suit the new geography, think again about whether you have picked the right country. If the model was 20% different in each country and one day you're running businesses in 20 countries, that is a recipe for complexity and disaster. The businesses I've invested in that travel well - Passenger and Gozney - are the ones that stay recognisably themselves wherever they land. Gozney sells the same pizza oven in America as in the UK. The only meaningful difference is that the American version is two inches bigger. Because of course it is. You don't crack America from a London desk. You crack it by hiring someone who already has. If you’re an entrepreneur or CEO and would like to attend a Growth Workshop, click the link here: https://lnkd.in/efTm7Jet

Selling the same sofa internationally means selling to different fears, habits, and expectations. A sofa product page should not look the same in Sweden, Romania, Germany, or Spain just because the product is the same. At first, it sounds simple. You translate the product page, change the currency, adjust the delivery details, and the product is ready to sell. 𝗣𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗱𝗼 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲. In Sweden, details around circular economy, material sourcing, sustainability, and repairability can be real buying signals. People actually look for them and use them to compare products. In Romania, the same information can easily feel like generic marketing language if it is not connected to something practical and immediate. In cities where most people live in apartment buildings, package size can be one of the most important details on the page. Customers need to know if the sofa will fit in the elevator, through the staircase, or through the apartment door. In areas where most people live in houses, the same detail may be much less important. The product is the same. The data behind the product can also be the same. But the way that data is presented should not be the same for every buyer. This becomes especially important above the fold, where the page has only a few seconds to make the visitor feel that the product is relevant, understandable, and safe to buy. So the question is not only how to translate a product page. The question is how to sell the same product in different countries, to different habits, different homes, different expectations, and different buying fears, without rebuilding the entire webshop every time. This is the kind of problem we are working on at Ixaria. We centralize all product data in one platform - materials, dimensions, packages, care, warranty, images, videos, 3D models, reviews, configuration rules, and more. Then we use that data to generate product pages that can adapt to the customer’s culture, behavior, and needs. Because selling internationally is not just about showing the same information in another language. It is about showing the right information, in the right order, to the right person. #CustomerExperience #Ecommerce #Personalization #FurnitureRetail #DigitalCommerce

Europe is the most fragmented market on earth. That makes it uniquely complex for brands. Unlike Australia or even the U.S., where scale can be achieved through a handful of dominant players, Europe is renowned for its diversity of markets. Each country brings its own mix of retailers, languages, and cultural nuances, sometimes shifting entirely within just a few hours’ drive. Supermarkets like Carrefour, Auchan, and Lidl each command enormous influence, yet even they adjust their strategies from country to country. For this reason, you can’t build a single campaign in Lisbon and expect it to resonate in Lausanne or Lyon. With multiple chains competing across each market, brands must fight harder for physical and mental availability. The challenge is being coherent, but not too uniform; maintaining distinctive brand assets that can flex across cultures and chains without your brand losing its foundations. The key is cultural literacy, understanding not just what’s sold, but why it resonates and adapting your otherwise stable brand ever so slightly to accommodate for this nuance. To put it simply, Europe rewards brands that can think globally but behave locally. Those who manage to balance both are the ones that cut through.

The failure of Five Guys in Germany is more than just a story about overpriced burgers — it’s a masterclass in cultural misalignment. When American brands expand into Europe, I always say: market entry is the ultimate pressure test for your marketing playbook. If you haven’t defined your value proposition sharply enough, you can’t adapt it to local culture and friction is guaranteed. Five Guys entered Germany with a US-centric model: premium fast food, higher prices, low marketing, and the belief that quality would speak for itself. But in Germany, it didn’t. A good example is their German Instagram channel. One of their posts promotes Milkshake Mix-in flavors of “Reese’s ” or “Cinnamon Bun”. In the US, these are nostalgic, beloved, high-recognition brands. In Germany? Reese’s has niche awareness, Cinnamon Bun is not a cultural staple, and neither triggers emotional resonance. To be successful in Germany you need to understand the Germans: 1. Price sensitivity & uncertainty avoidance – Germans value structure, reliability, and rational decision-making. Paying twice as much for a burger with no clear differentiation simply didn’t add up - and the macroeconomic environment didn't help. 2. Individualism vs. collectivism – American brands often sell an emotional “have it your way” narrative. In Germany, shared experiences and consistency matters. 3. Long-term orientation – German consumers reward brands that invest locally, adapt to culture, and show commitment — not those that copy-paste global playbooks. Localization isn’t about translation. It’s about resonance. It’s understanding what people value, what they expect from brands, and what will actually make them care. In my work with US companies expanding into Europe, I’ve seen it repeatedly: those who adapt thrive. Those who don’t become case studies. #Localization #GlobalMarketing #BrandStrategy #CulturalIntelligence #Hofstede #MarketEntry #FiveGuys #MarketingLeadership

🚫 Riyadh is NOT Dubai. If you’re using your UAE playbook to build in Saudi.. You’re setting yourself up for a very expensive lesson. I’ve seen this mistake too many times: Founders raise money in the UAE.. Then try to copy-paste the same product, GTM, and hiring strategy into Saudi. 📉 9 out of 10 times.. 🙃 It flops.. BAD. Saudi is not “just another GCC market” It has its own rhythm, behavior, and growth path. And if you don’t adapt.. you’ll bleed runway fast. Here’s a reality check from someone who’s scaled in Saudi. Not once. Not twice. But across multiple ventures. 🖐 5 Things You MUST Unlearn Before Building in Saudi: 1️⃣ The Loyalty Playbook Saudi customers expect more, Demand faster, And tolerate less. And unlike Dubai.. They’re loyal to PEOPLE, not BRANDS. Don’t win their wallet. Win their trust. 2️⃣ The Fake Localization Trap Changing currency and translating copy ≠ localization. Real localization means rethinking your: 🔹 UX flows 🔹 Payment options 🔹 Support expectations 🔹 Even your working hours Otherwise.. Your app still feels foreign. 3️⃣ Your “Proven” B2B Sales Model In Saudi, trust is still built in-person. You need people on the ground.. NOT Just Zoom links and LinkedIn messages. 4️⃣ The ‘Tech Bro’ Badge Your Y Combinator sticker?! Cool!! But if you can’t navigate GOSI, ZATCA, and Mudad.. you’re toast. Saudi investors want execution and resilience, Not Silicon Valley buzzwords. 5️⃣ The Startup Perks Trap Office baristas, Bean bags, And ping pong tables Don’t retain Saudi talent. Career growth, Ownership, And a real sense of mission does. 💠 Finally.. This isn’t about Riyadh being harder than Dubai.. It’s just different. Just like Cairo isn’t London.. And we’ve seen what happens when you forget that. (☝ If you missed that post, check the comments.) 📌 Founders: Don’t just localize your landing page. Localize: ✅ Your team ✅ Your model ✅ Your assumptions 🇸🇦 That’s how you build real, lasting success in Saudi. 💬 What’s the most surprising difference YOU experienced when launching in Saudi? Let’s hear the war stories.👇 📣 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗮 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀-𝗼𝗻 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗢𝗢 𝗼𝗿 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗿 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁. 𝗗𝗠 𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗲𝘁'𝘀 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗼𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿. #SaudiStartups #MENAtech #ScalingInSaudi #OperationsLeadership

Kenya’s avocado exporters are learning the hard way, Logistics isn't just a cost center. It's a make-or-break factor. With the Red Sea route no longer safe, ships are rerouting around the Cape of Good Hope. That one change has triggered a chain reaction: 🔄 Transit times have nearly doubled What took 22 days to Europe now takes 40+ and avocados aren’t built for that kind of delay. 💰 Transport costs have spiked Freight rates are up. Surcharges are in play. And every extra day in transit is driving up the final price per kilo. ❌ Fruit quality is compromised Even with Controlled Atmosphere containers, We’re seeing more claims, more rejections, and shrinking profit margins. So, the real question is no longer “How do we make up for these losses?” It’s: “How fast can we pivot?” Here’s where exporters must look next: ➡️ Shorter, faster markets – The Gulf. North Africa. Southern Africa. Less transit time. Less risk. More predictability. ➡️Processed products – Pulp, frozen avocado, oil. Stable shelf life. Higher margins. No race against ripening. ➡️Cold chain efficiency – From packhouse to port, every hour matters. Infrastructure is no longer a ‘nice-to-have.’ The Red Sea disruption won’t be the last. But it should be the loudest wake-up call yet. If we keep relying on one route, one product, and one market, we're not exporting. We're gambling. PS: Are we ready to pivot?

From my expertise working inside the FDA and alongside CBP, I can tell you this — what just happened isn’t a trade adjustment, it’s a regulatory upheaval. New import taxes are being introduced under the guise of fairness, but they’re about to trigger a domino effect that affects everyone moving products across borders — especially those regulated by federal agencies. Costs won’t just rise. Risk will. Businesses operating in highly controlled industries will now face a triple-threat: 🔸 Unpredictable border interventions 🔸 Shifting agency priorities 🔸 Higher stakes for even minor missteps I’ve seen this kind of pressure play out from the inside. It’s not just about what you bring into the country — it’s about whether your business is built to survive these shifts. If you're responsible for compliance, legal strategy, or product movement — especially in food, supplements, drugs, devices, cosmetics, or even pet goods — now’s the time to act, not react. #TradePolicy #RegulatoryStrategy #FDACompliance #TariffImpact #USImports #GlobalTrade #CBPEnforcement #SupplyChainRisks #ExecutiveLeadership #LegalStrategy #FoodLaw #PharmaCompliance #MedicalDeviceRegulations #PetIndustryRegulations #CrossBorderTrade #ProductSafety #RiskMitigation #ThoughtLeadership #USDA #LinkedInCreators