Е-commerce over borders relies on transparency

Logistics and Supply Chain News Uncategorized

Cross border e-commerce operations are becoming more complex and companies are looking for ways to simplify the process while offering the quality customers receive when ordering nationally. Multiple reasons make this hard like customers’ attitudes, technology and suppliers’ relationship.

Covid-19 changed the way a lot of people look at online orders. What was most affected is customers’ experience which is becoming more important than ever. When it comes to cross border operations consumers have really changed.

According to Craig Reed, SVP, Global Trade at Avalara, Amazon is responsible for people expecting the same quality of crosborder orders as they do with nationals. This creates a few problems that are not as easy to overcome as people would think.

This article is part of The Logistics Point October 2020. Read more HERE!

Know the rules

One of the firsts steps when shipping over borders is to know what rules apply. “Goods need to be compliant and firms need to understand what duties they have to pay,” says Manoj Pankaj, VP Cross-border eCommerce/B2C shipping at GEODIS. The majority of friction is around non-compliant goods and many companies get discouraged to go internationally because they do not think they can deal with all the rules. Additionally, organisations need to look carefully at translations and what language is used.

“Understand the local market and their attitudes as some are more or less sensitive to the price,” explains Daniel Ennor, CEO at Global Freight Solutions Ltd. In some locations paying by cash is a preferred method.

Managing returns

Returns are becoming a crucial part of cross border e-commerce operations. A good option to manage returns is to find a local partner who can do it for you.

“A lot of things happen in the back end when managing e-commerce platforms,” says Pankaj. It would be a mistake to try and do everything alone. A good solution is needed to manage everything in a way that works for every local market you plan to ship to. The advice is to get the best service provider for a specific task. ✷

#ecommerce #bordertrade

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