By Tommaso Tamburnotti
It’s no surprise that eCommerce has surpassed brick and mortar stores and is now the preferred way to shop for 51 percent of Americans. And, globally, eCommerce continues to grow exponentially – with sales projected to top $4 trillion by 2020. One of the biggest areas of eCommerce growth is cross-border. In fact, cross-border retail volumes are expected to increase on average 25 percent annually from 2015 to 2020. This shift and growth to online is largely due to the rise in exceptional technology creating a seamless user experience.
Ease of Entry
In 2017, anyone with a computer can start selling their product to a very targeted consumer. Growth of major marketplaces (eBay, Amazon) and popular shop builders (Shopify, WooCommerce) have made it incredibly easy for sellers of any size to consider eCommerce. Additionally, technology driven payment systems like online payment processing and electronic payment technology (i.e. Paypal) have helped expand the eCommerce ecosystem. These advancements have laid the groundwork for eCommerce sellers to be able to sell products to a global audience.
Narrow Focus on Domestic Sales Misses Opportunity
With the opportunities for global expansion endless — especially in cross-border sales, eCommerce companies that only focus on domestic sales are missing out. Specifically, US eCommerce sellers not selling globally miss the opportunity to grow, increase revenue and expand the customer base.
Last Barrier to Going Global: Worldwide Shipping
While online sales offer limitless possibilities for growth with no borders, the shipping and delivery mechanisms to support those sales are equivalent to the wild, wild west – leaving sellers with little confidence that products will arrive on time and safely to customers. Worldwide shipping is complex. Sellers and innovators are left to navigate: international regulations, taxes/ duties, high shipping costs and a system that lacks transparency.
This process can be time consuming, expensive (often sellers don’t know the total cost with fees until the product is delivered) and confusing to eCommerce customers. Without a clear solution to worldwide shipping challenges online retailers risk damaging their reputation or losing future business.
Technology Revolutionizes Global Shipping
Life before Paypal impacted how companies could grow and what customers they could reach. Today’s standard of global payments in minutes was previously unimaginable. Shipping is now poised to take advantage of a similar shift. Standards of global shipping are being reinvented as well. The eCommerce companies that embrace technology will go global in minutes allowing opportunities to scale and increase revenue. Easyship, a technology company with an all-in-one shipping solution tackles the challenges of worldwide shipping. With the introduction of Easyship’s technology platform, eCommerce sellers are able to depend on a platform that can replace hours of research and provide solutions that are guaranteed for delivery with accurate pricing.
New eCommerce Company Goes Global
Decent Espresso, offers customers a machine that makes excellent home espresso. Through the online store they get orders from all over the world. Like many eCommerce companies, Decent Espresso wanted to fulfill orders quickly and send espresso machines to any customer in the world but the shipping costs quoted to them from global couriers were at prices completely out of range for their business. By partnering with Easyship, Decent Espresso is able to get a access to range of couriers with price discounts up to 70%.
Without clear shipping prices, sales can stall and customers can abandon carts — eating into the profits of fledgling companies. Before partnering with shipping technology platforms like Easyship, companies like Decent Espresso had to spend hours to research the best shipping solution and understand the regulations for each destination. There is no one magic courier that is the best solution everywhere. This means hours of research to determine the best option and separate courier accounts for each shipping solution making tracking a challenge. Even with all of this research, companies would often ship a product only to be hit with hidden costs and fees.
Now Easyship’s transparency empowers eCommerce sellers so that everyone understands total shipping costs and options upfront — creating flexibility for customers to choose cheapest, fastest or best value.
Always Think Global
Today, creating a product and opening an online store is only the first step. eCommerce sellers need to leverage all resources and solutions available to reach potential. It has become standard to rely on technology to help eCommerce sellers, market to customers, build an online store and manage online payments. Now with technology coming to shipping, eCommerce sellers are able solve a major pain point. The technology unlocks the seller’s potential to sell cross-border and expand sales globally. By embracing technology, transparency and a global mindset, eCommerce sellers are able to scale worldwide and consistently deliver their products to their customers anywhere in the world.
Tommaso Tamburnotti is the co-founder of Easyship.
