International Strategy

Cross-Border Postal Rates Will Increase on July 1
June 10, 2020 at 6:52 pm

Cross-border shipping rates will go up for many U.S. shippers on July 1. This change comes after countries began to self-declare postal rates based on the deal reached by the Universal Postal Union (UPU) in September, Supply Chain Dive reported. Many postage sellers, consolidators and other cross-border service providers such as FedEx, UPS and Stamps.com, received new contracts from…

Content Localization as the Key to Success in Global Markets
June 8, 2020 at 10:33 am

When retailers enter into global markets, they give a lot of attention to ensuring their products are ready for the tastes and expectations of new cultures. But what about the product content? An often overlooked part of bringing products to global markets is content localization to create an accurate, natural-sounding product description for consumers. Customers…

How Retailers Can Navigate Today’s Global Environment
May 20, 2020 at 2:01 pm

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen market interruptions caused by a global event. We’ve seen many economic disruptions occur due to natural or man-made phenomena. In a globally connected world, with interdependencies spanning across borders, the impact of the current COVID-19 situation is having a particularly acute impact on the retail sector. Recent social…

Retailers Shouldn't Look to China for Answers in Planning for 2020
April 15, 2020 at 9:20 pm

Some retailers have said that the buying trends among their U.S. customers since the outbreak of the coronavirus and its resulting COVID-19 spread in North America match those that they saw in China when the crisis started in that country. As such, they're using China as a model to gauge how the current health and…

How to Make Free Shipping Profitable, Part 6
March 18, 2020 at 3:35 pm

The global e-commerce market is booming, and it’s growing faster than the more-saturated U.S. market. Global e-commerce sales increased 20.7 percent last year, surpassing the 14.9 percent growth in the U.S. With such incredible growth numbers, perhaps it’s time to assess how domestic merchants can expand further and tap into international customers. In the past,…

Cashing in on E-Commerce: What We Learned From the Holiday Shopping Season
February 11, 2020 at 12:33 pm

Globally, e-commerce is on the rise as consumers can purchase goods from anywhere in the world with the click of a button. The days of waiting in long lines on Black Friday are over. And consumers can still receive many of the same, and sometimes better, deals as those who venture to brick-and-mortar store locations.…

How to Overcome Cross-Border Challenges for International E-Commerce
January 7, 2020 at 11:45 am

There’s that trope about how online shopping means you can get everything from groceries to furniture without ever having to leave your house. Whether you’re shopping on your smartphone or from your computer, the internet really has had a dramatic impact on the way consumers think about what and how they buy. Online businesses are…

The Future of Cross-Border E-Commerce
December 13, 2019 at 10:30 am

Despite events happening around the world, from trade disputes to looming legislation with global impacts, we're entering an era of unparalleled growth. According to PPRO research, worldwide cross-border e-commerce grew by 4 percent last year to a current value of $412 billion. To take advantage of this global opportunity, U.S. merchants need to accommodate the very…

Walmart Plans to Open 500 New Stores in China
November 21, 2019 at 11:13 am

Despite an economic downshift, Walmart plans to expand in China, CNN reported. The retailer announced it will be opening 500 new stores in China over the next five years to seven years, which would be more than double Walmart's current footprint in the country. Earlier this year, Walmart announced plans to invest more than a…