3 Essential strategies for cross border e-commerce

Seven-out-of-10 customers say they’re constantly on the lookout for new brands and products. Of course, they go online.

By next year, online shopping will account for 22.3% – approximately $6 trillion – of total global retail sales. The U.S. will bring in $1 trillion of that. The APAC region will make up another $2.5 trillion. But e-commerce is also seeing significant growth in Latin America, India and Europe, which despite its maturity as a market, at 11% growth YoY, is growing faster than point-of-sale (POS).

Customers’ e-commerce appetites are now so large that markets around the world are ready to burst at the seams, carrying countless customers’ online shopping searches across borders on the hunt for the items they desire.

No wonder 88% of e-commerce leaders say having an international presence will be essential to their success by 2024 ─ and beyond.

Retailers who stay domestic could be missing out on a valuable opportunity. What can you do to make sure you’re cross-border ready?

1. Provide a comfortable journey

Even when shopping cross-border, customers expect some home comforts.

While more than two-thirds of global shoppers said they had made a cross-border e-commerce purchase at some point, almost half will abandon their cart if they’re hit with unexpected costs at the checkout – like conversion charges, taxes and high delivery fees. We also know that if they can’t find their preferred payment method, as many as 41% of shoppers will go elsewhere.

In online retail, the importance of a seamless customer experience has long been advocated, but implementing it well is another matter, made more complex when you’re accommodating a global shopper.

Ways to attract online shoppers include fast delivery, easy and secure checkout and enabling the right payment methods. But when catering for international shoppers, you may want to consider what language your visitor wants to shop in and which currency is displayed. It may also be significant to offer the preferred local payment types to quicken sales and drive repeat customer and shopper loyalty. Other considerations include how easy returns are and whether shoppers can make instant payments.

When the cross-border experience is right, merchants can expect an uptick in revenues, as well as a much-expanded customer base.

2. Tune into your market

In Worldpay's Global Payments Report 2024, we found that digital wallets accounted for almost half (49%) of global e-commerce transactions by value in 2021 and are expected to rise to 52.5% in 2025. Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) continues to rise, making up 2.9% of global e-commerce transactions in 2021 and is set to reach 5.3% by 2025.

This makes it the fastest-growing global payment type.

The appetite for alternative payment methods (APMs), as well as which ones are favored, does differ on a global scale so merchants and their payment partners need that global view. In the “early adopter" countries (U.K., the Nordics, Australia), BNPL already accounts for 12% of e-commerce transaction value, rising to a predicted 17% by 2025.

Therefore, attracting shoppers from those countries increasingly should include having a BNPL option at checkout.

3. Travel safely

Just like when they’re globetrotting, shoppers stay on high alert for fraud on the internet.

Over half (54%) of consumers said they had seen something suspicious or fraudulent online – more than the number that have experienced spam phone calls, cold door-to-door sales and suspicious posts combined. So, it’s no wonder that nine-out-of-10 people have concerns about buying from and paying on an unfamiliar website.

As their hosts, merchants have a responsibility to protect visitors – wherever they’re coming from and however they pay. And it’s in the interest of the merchant, too. Retailers are projected to lose a global $130 billion in card-not-present fraud in the years leading to 2024.

But just as physical travelers wouldn’t spend their holidays hiding out in a hotel room, neither should you expect shoppers to stay local due to concerns and challenges cross-border shopping might bring.

Instead, understand your online experience needs to be reassuring ─ pre-empting their worries and eliminating risk for the shopper. This way, they can proceed with their sale with confidence and, even better, keep coming back.

How we can help

Two-thirds of e-commerce businesses are already selling internationally, with cross-border e-commerce sales making up a significant 31% of their revenue. If you haven’t already, it’s time to join their number.

For those looking for more than a quick getaway, settling into a new market requires a customer experience with staying power.

Worldpay has the tools you can depend on to put shoppers at the heart of the user experience – with over 300 payment types, fraud prevention, global reporting and local expertise. We serve more than 20,000 clients and more than one million merchant locations in over 130 countries.

Pro Tip: To get a global view, we recommend Pazien, our payments analysis tool. It gives you access to custom reports, exportable data and actionable insights from markets around the world based on the more than 110 million transactions we process every day.

With access to always-up-to-date trends, you can be sure you select the right suite of payments solutions to keep your global customers coming back.

Need more help preparing for your journey into cross-border e-commerce? Just get in touch.

Otherwise, we’ll see you out there.