WINBORNE CONSULTING

Additionally, cross-border e-commerce allows brands to tap into different seasonal patterns across countries and regions. While a particular product may experience a lull in demand during one country’s off-season, it might be in high demand elsewhere. This seasonal variation enables retailers to optimize their sales throughout the year and maintain a consistent revenue stream.

Key Considerations

Deciding which countries to enter is typically one of the first decisions you need to make and your own analytics data is usually the best place to start. Countries already visiting or buying from you are the low-hanging fruit, versus building new demand into new markets. Your top three-to-five international markets will generally drive the largest share of your cross-border GMV opportunity. If you’re already receiving substantial international traffic and/or sales and you’re not well optimized, or even available, in those markets, you can expect to see high double-digit percentage increases once you eliminate key friction points.

International traffic percentage benchmarks vary by vertical, and an easy way to gauge yourself would be against peer/competitor brands through a quick check on a tool like Similarweb, where you can get a high-level evaluation of any competitors.

DIY vs. DIFM

Another one of the first steps brand needs to consider is whether a do-it-yourself (DIY) or do-it-for-me (DIFM) approach is best. While there’s no rule of thumb, it really comes down to available resources and what aligns best with the longer-term strategic goals.

A DIY approach gives brands more control, flexibility, and potentially lower costs, but requires substantial, resources and time investment. For instance, just launching one new international market can mean multiple commercial agreements and integrations to partner with international payment gateways, tax and duties calculations or new payment methods.

Third-party, DIFM solutions, such as ESW (formery eShopworld), Global-e, and more recently, Glopal, which also ads marketing localization, have gained popularity. These solutions offer speed to market, and specialized expertise in navigating cross-border complexities, but may come with some reduced control and margin impact as most offerings base fees as a percentage of total checkout.

Other key DIY/DIFM retailer considerations include assessing their own internal capabilities, understanding the nuances of those target markets, total cost of ownership, and assessing the need for how deeply localized their specific customer experiences need to be. For some brands, a hybrid approach often makes sense, whereby a retailer may continue to run their top markets and bring in a third-party solution provider who can help access the longtail opportunity with better efficiency and speed. For others just getting started in cross-border DTC, it might be easier to have a third party get them up and running quickly.