Introduction

Nowadays, because of the current economic climate, it is increasingly important for companies to grow internationally and to seek out opportunities abroad.

What do we mean by internationalisation? It can be defined as the decision of a business to target geographical markets outside its original location, and it is understood to be one of the most complex and interesting ways of growing and developing a business.

For a business, the sale of its products are limited to its production capacity; so, having carried out viability studies and the corresponding market prospection and analysis, a business then makes the decision as to whether to export or not. Indeed, internationalisation can offer a means of expanding towards emerging markets or a way of meeting business opportunities abroad.

Once you have decided to take on the great challenge of exporting, and as your first sales begin to fall into place, you encounter one of the main problems: a lack of information about your potential customers. You are then plagued by doubts and questions such as: Are they solvent? Can you be guaranteed to collect payment? How will currency fluctuations affect you? Do you have to take into account the specific legislation of each country? Will the language of the country in question affect you?

For all these reasons, you must be careful and chose the means of collecting payment on your exports very wisely.

So, to help you, let’s look at the main foreign trade products, bearing in mind the degree of security they offer.