International E-commerce Expansion Benchmark Study

Table of Contents

Foreword

About Our Sponsors

International E-commerce Expansion Benchmark Study

Detailed Findings

Other JCWG Resources

FOREWORD

Are we, the E-commerce industry, ready to face the exciting but daunting challenge of international E-commerce? Companies of all sizes, channels and categories are asking themselves this question. Driven by domestic slowdowns, enticing growth rates in less mature markets, and glimmers of demand from customers we often disrespect, we appear to be poised for a wave of growth. Only time will tell how big this wave will be, but the broader trend of retail globalization foreshadows intensifying competition in pursuit of this growth.

A debate among colleagues and industry peers is “who has the edge?” We are too early to answer this without hesitation, but we observe that pure play retailers and community-based retailers’ nimbleness gives them an edge to leverage their brands’ equity overseas (e.g., Overstock.com, Threadless.com or Zazzle.com). If this sounds familiar, it should. We draw many comparisons to the early days of E-commerce, including “skunkworks” projects. Continuing the analogy, we also know many global manufacturers and multinational, multi-channel retailers are organizing their formidable resources to develop new growth businesses, resulting in a rapidly changing international landscape.

As we have delved into the issues and drawn upon our own experiences, we have come to appreciate the many options available, each with different risk/reward profiles. This has brought new insights in terms of solutions to the international puzzle. This creates an expanded range of strategic options that provide greater flexibility, which is critical in a challenging retail environment. In the end, we encourage anyone interested in the international opportunity to know their options and issues. The litany of issues and challenges can be daunting and have hindered decision making. Yet, the combination of market forces and solutions are providing the catalyst to venture into new markets, even if all of the issues have not been “solved”.

We set out to develop this benchmarking research study to provide a means for companies to compare themselves to others in the industry: it provides decision frameworks and checklists of issues and solutions to consider for your company’s unique circumstance. With input from many E-commerce veterans in the industry, including those with experience in the international trenches, we highlight the issues deemed most important in the development of your international E-commerce strategy.

We want to thank all of those who have shared both their experiences and insights in the development of this research, from all of the E-commerce executives and solution providers who we interviewed, to our sponsors. A special thanks to Dia-Mart, Gruppe Nymphenburg, and Retail Institute Scandinavia—members of Ebeltoft, as well as CyberSource, iPerceptions, Forrester Research, Kent Allen, Spaide, Kuipers & Co, and Sally McKenzie for sharing their data, insights and being part of our working team. And finally, we thank our long-time friends at
Shop.org for their input and generosity.