Top 3 Retailers who are Mastering Cross-border Commerce

The advent of cross-border commerce has turned a game changer for the small and the medium-sized businesses. The online marketplaces have become a great investment for the online retailers. They have turned out big players and developed strategic partnerships amongst other foreign countries. This has helped them engage in both offline and online relations with various brands and customers.

While in the process, the customers also have evolved and involved a lot. They now focus on the brand shopping rather than the channel shopping. Moreover, they are more inclined towards the web rooms than the showrooms. This has completely blurred the line between the online and the offline shopping. To be specific, this has blurred the lines amongst different geographic locations.

The changing diaspora

• With the on-growing demand for the global products and brands, there has been a constant rise in their presence in both online and offline catalogs.
• E-commerce is gradually shaping up the world into a one-unified market. The strategy behind is to make the products and brands available locally and globally in the markets.
• Cross-border commerce has been growing to make its presence crossing every geographical border.
• By 2021, the Global B2C E-commerce might reach over $424 billion. This market share targets the E-commerce bloomers like Asia, North America, and Europe.

Here are 3 top brands and retailers who have scored high in the “International Retail Index” and have managed to master the cross-border commerce game with engaging customer experience over the years.

• ASOS

ASOS, the great fashion hub and global retailer, is ranked number 3 in the International Retail Index. It has surpassed the likes of the leading brands like Aldi, Apple, and John Lewis. ASOS offers great fashion at even great prices. This brand has expanded globally over the countries like France, the US, Germany, and Spain over the last few years. David Green, the MD at ASOS, discussed how the brand leveraged the technology for an engaging customer experience.

For a frictionless experience to its customers, they integrated type-ahead address verification that enables the customers to quickly fill in their address. The team at ASOS easily captures the data and insights for a cleaner and more accurate checkout for its customers. The global retailer also has laid more emphasis over the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). This ensures the data capture happens in a compliant manner. Moreover, it sets the right balance between the customer experience and the compliance.

• Sephora

The other Global Retailer that ranked 8th in the International Retail Index is Sephora. Ian McGarrigle’s, the chairman of the World Retail Congress selected this French brand for the World Retailer of the Year. He also stated that this French brand has leveraged every international opportunity for over 4 decades. It potentially monitors the customers’ behavior and the brand offerings. Today it globally operates in 30+ countries which include the US, China, and Italy.

Setting a benchmark with its global presence, this leading Global Retailer has seized the opportunity what Digitalization offers. It also analyzes the customer demands and the insights of their businesses. With such a strong customer base and digital platform engagement, this has been driving the youth fashion and continues to grow globally. Along with the digital approach, it has adopted the local intelligence. This helps the brand to understand the demands of its shoppers. It also betters the customized offerings to its customers for both local and online stores.

The most powerful feature is the social media engagement of the brand for its valuable shoppers. The Sephora Assistant feature available with the Facebook Messenger app allows the shoppers to easily book their items in the nearby stores.

• Walmart

Robert Gregory, the Global Research Director for the Planet Retail RNG selected the Global brand Walmart. The brand ranks 9th in the International Retail Index. This brand has been a consistent player in the E-commerce world and the Retailer’s Market. Walmart has a strong physical presence in markets at over 30 places. Over the past few years, to make a digital presence over the global platforms, it has been continuously reinventing itself.

Walmart has already engaged digitally in the cross-border markets in countries like India and China. Recently, it made an investment in the Indian E-commerce giant Flipkart to set its roots in India. Flipkart has a strong customer base. The startup-turned-giant has been a leading E-commerce company in the retail market with over 100+ brands under its umbrella. The partnership between Walmart and Flipkart is likely to be a great business for both the parties and a great venture in the E-commerce and cross-border markets.