Cross-border trade and international selling

Overcome the obstacles of cross-border trade with these three free guides from our partners at Volo Commerce. 

Is your product in demand?

Selling internationally isn’t as easy as eBay would have you believe. There are many obstacles to overcome, hoops to jump through, and time and resources to be spent getting the foundations in place.

Use this guide to gauge demand for your items on international markets, and determine which items are in low supply in foreign markets. Low supply can drive prices up – in some cases three to four times higher than they are in the UK.

The international selling journey

Cross-border trade in multi-channel retail has been a hot topic for some time now, but it's not too late to discuss best practice. Ecommerce growth has started to slow down in Western Europe, and it may be no bad thing. Western Europe’s market (where online retail accounts for 6.3% of all retail sales and cross-border is 14%, PFS web report) is one of the most stable in the world, so investments are safer and more trustworthy.
 

Channel coverage in ecommerce – how much is enough?
 
If you’re active on one channel (perhaps your website, or Amazon or eBay), you probably consider yourself to be an expert on that platform. You know its rules, how it operates and how to be successful on it. Unfortunately, you should be aware of what might happen if there’s a problem and it stops working for you. To avoid this scenario, you could look at making your stock available on a second ecommerce channel. You can spread your risk between the two channels and get some balance.

That sounds easy, but this second channel is different. It works in a different way. You have to start from scratch to learn it, which takes time, money and sweat, all of which you could be expending on your single channel. Volo shares the insights to guide your decision making process. 

Now that you’ve mastered international trade, how about currency?

Cross-border trade has been the key to many online sellers’ success – unlocking the potential of global markets and increasing your customer base gives you a huge advantage, but receiving sales in a foreign currency can present its own challenges.

Online marketplaces like Amazon will convert your foreign revenue into your home currency for you, but if you’ve ever taken a look at the foreign exchange rates that you receive on those transfers you’ll realise that you lose around 4% of your sales revenue on every item sold once the conversion is complete.

At Currencies Direct, we help you take home more of your profits – with our help, most online sellers cut their foreign exchange costs by at least 50%.

To find out how we can bring value to your online business, contact the friendly experts on our e-tailer team: +44 (0) 20 7847 9269 or email etailers@currenciesdirect.com