It’s a buyer’s paradise for the affluent English middle classes, and now department store, John Lewis, is going global.

The company aims to use the foreign language internet to entice those from overseas by implementing a massive global marketing strategy. Already trading in Western Europe, deliveries will be expanding into the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore by the end of the summer.

Now that John Lewis bosses have realised the opportunity in the foreign language internet, they’re hoping to rake in £300m of international sales, which would represent 50% of their revenue. And with stats showing that every $1 spent on localisation returns $25, we predict it might not be long before they hit their £300m target.

It’s clearly a major operation, but it’s been a pretty easy ride so far, according to John Lewis’ commercial director, Andrea O’ Donnell: ‘An international online operation is relatively straightforward. You can access many more customers in a relatively cost-effective way,’ she said.

At the moment, only one in twenty visitors is from outside the UK, but it’s hoped their localised Google AdWords campaign will drive more traffic to the site.

Mike Dennis, retail analyst at MF Global, said that appealing to overseas customer was a ’smart move’, and we have to agree.

With localised campaigns, John Lewis will find it much easier to stand out from the online competition, and with any luck, their comfortable blend of posh products will take the world by storm.

tags: Foreign Language Internet, global marketing, Localisation