Cross-border eCommerce is a proven business expansion strategy where online brands realign their fulfilment capability to serve overseas customers and adapt their site or join online marketplaces, to sell their products internationally.
Selling overseas immediately increases your market size and makes your brand available for bigger and better business opportunities. By accessing these new markets, you increase your reach, gain a competitive edge and increase your bottom line.
The global cross-border eCommerce market is projected to reach over $1.5 Trillion by 2027, growing at an annual rate of over 15%, so the opportunity is HUGE.
There are many benefits of moving into international markets including:
– Increase market size incrementally and exponentially
– Raise brand awareness and create a global following of enthusiastic shoppers
– Take advantage of different market cycles, to stay in demand all year
– Shift slow-moving lines to new market segments
– Improve business resilience by lowering market dependency
Just like any business strategy, international eCommerce has some issues that brands need to consider, but fortunately many of these challenges can be easily overcome, so they can scale globally.
Many consumers will leave an eCommerce website prematurely if it is not in their language, or they cannot see or simply convert prices into their local currency, but there are simple to install applications that will automatically convert currencies and website localisation solutions like Weglot.
Different regions favour different payment methods, so it is critical to identify the most popular payment methods in target countries, so they can be offered in your checkout to increase conversions, or use popular platforms such as Shopify, BigCommerce and WooCommerce.
It is vital that your fulfilment operations can seamlessly process and deliver higher volumes of orders, as you market to larger audiences and different destination countries.
You will want to ensure there are no restrictions on your products, know what cross-border taxation applies and understand how orders will clear customs in your target markets
Ensure you understand the available shipping methods, as these will determine delivery (and return) costs, and therefore your shipping pricing model.
Global Forwarding provide cost-effective, fast, regional shipping and international fulfilment solutions, that extend your markets with localised shopping experiences.
Our global customs brokerage support includes cross-border clearance, management of duties and taxes, Merchant of Record (MoR), VAT reporting and EU free circulation of product.
Oriental Global Logistics (OGL) is the eCommerce subsidiary of Global Forwarding, with fulfilment centres in Hong Kong, New Jersey, and Heathrow for the super-efficient processing of inbound stock and returns.
VISIT the Oriental Global Logistics web site, or EMAIL OGL’s managing director, John Ruan, to learn more.
