Jessica Vascellaro of the Wall St. Jnl. wrote an interesting article on foreign retailers who are using the Web to take a shot at cracking the US market; companies like Harrod's, FigLeaves.com, and Wedgwood have all recently launched localized US Web sites.

According to the article:

Foreign retailers see the Web as a way to expand their brand with few start-up costs and to test the waters before opening stores in the U.S. BJ Cunningham, co-founder of the British luxury-shoe company Georgina Goodman Ltd., says his company's online shopping site, launched in spring 2004, has helped the company to identify cities where it may be profitable to open a store, such as New York, Chicago and Seattle.