Going global is a big opportunity for your brand. New markets and customers, expanded brand affinity, new product development and adoption—you name it. And international ecommerce is the best opportunity for it.
The potential for accelerated growth and lucrative financial rewards is exponential. But scaling globally can also be fraught with costly missteps that can actually stunt growth. It may even leave you second-guessing your global growth strategy altogether.
If you want to grow and expand your customer base, there are some key tips and tricks you need to incorporate into your strategy.
Key global ecommerce statistics for 2025
Shoppers everywhere are spending more online, and a growing share of that is spent cross-border. Brands that localize pricing, payments, and logistics for high-growth regions (like Southeast Asia) can capture a greater part of the trillions in online sales.
Let’s look at some proof:
- $6.56 trillion in global retail ecommerce sales: Online sales worldwide are forecast to reach US$6.56 trillion in 2025, up from $6.09 trillion in 2024, a 7.8% YoY lift.
- Ecommerce passes 20% of total retail for the first time. Digital purchases will account for 20.1% of all retail sales in 2025, thanks to China’s outsize influence, reports eMarketer.
- Cross-border B2C boom: The cross-border B2C ecommerce market hit $1.51 trillion in 2024 and is expected to grow at a 21% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2033, topping $9.96 trillion.
- Trade flows are accelerating again. DHL’s Trade Atlas 2025 finds that global trade volume growth is set to outpace the previous decade, with India, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines emerging as top growth markets for the next five years.
These numbers confirm one thing: real growth is happening when brands meet customers on their terms. Shopify Managed Markets helps make it happen.
With a single dashboard, you can sell in more than 150 different countries, automate currency conversion, collect duties up front, and secure prenegotiated carrier rates, so the next trillion dollars in cross-border spend is only a few clicks away.
Nine steps to building an international ecommerce strategy
Whether you’re dipping your toes into international markets or going for a full-blown expansion, you can bring your vision of scaling globally to life. Here are 10 steps to help you take the guesswork out of what to do.
1. Conduct market research
The first step is conducting market research for your potential target market and customers. Expanding your brand into a new market will only work if customers are there to buy your product.
Start with macro signals to shortlist high-intent markets, like:
- GDP per capita growth: Prioritize markets that are growing YoY in real terms, and have rising disposable incomes.
- Ecommerce penetration: Consider markets where online commerce accounts for a growing amount (between 15% and 20%) of retail sales.
- Mobile-wallet adoption: Digital wallets can drive conversions and improve the customer experience. Look into markets like India and China where the majority of consumers are using mobile payment options.
Next, layer in share-of-search data and social-listening insights to identify unmet consumer needs. Track your brand’s monthly query volume versus total branded queries in the category.
Use tools like Brandwatch or Sprout Social to scrape mentions of “problem + product” in local language. Then, filter for negative sentiment and high-engagement threads to uncover what customers are thinking.
2. Build a market-entry plan
After compiling your market research and determining where your brand fills customer and product needs, it’s time to develop a strategic, comprehensive plan for entering the market.
US athletic backpack brand WOLFpak had international interests in mind, and used Shopify Managed Markets to manage and scale their brand globally. The brand’s cross-border revenue ballooned by over 500%.
To formulate your plan, answer questions like: How do your products need to be priced? How do your competitors in the market compare? When it comes to shipping and fulfillment, do you have international partners? International customers are often faced with higher shipping rates and are more likely to abandon their carts, which could cost you sales.
3. Localize storefront and content
Buyers want to shop in their own language. Appeal to them and make the shopping experience easier by ensuring they can buy products, read reviews, and enjoy your brand’s content in their own language. Unlike most ecommerce platforms, Shopify lets you run cross-border pricing, duties, and payments from one admin.
Localization extends far beyond translation. Activate auto-rounded local currency, date/number formats, and size charts. Show ratings and reviews in-market first, and swap imagery where cultural norms differ (e.g., sleeves rather than. sleeveless apparel in the Middle East and North Africa region).
See how this works with leading UK-based retailer Gymshark’s online store. In the UAE, the website automatically detects the shopper’s IP and switches the currency in the free-shipping bar to AED (“FREE DELIVERY OVER 300 AED”). The website is still in English, as the language is widely spoken there—but shoppers can also flip to Arabic with one click.
Landing on the Swiss German version changes the language entirely. It also accepts Swiss francs (CHF), which feels trustworthy to shoppers in Switzerland, where the Euro is not widely accepted.
For their home market, Gymshark anchors value on a “15% student discount” banner, which is hyper-relevant for UK university shoppers.
4. Ensure compliance with local regulations and laws
Cross-border shoppers hate surprises, and customs officials hate guesswork. International expansion only scales if every package lands in-market with the right duty code, paperwork, and tax treatment.
Shopify makes it easy to collect duties and important taxes at checkout. Go to Settings › Taxes and duties → Duties and import taxes → Set up. Your store must:
- Ship with a carrier that supports DDP labels (if you use Shopify Shipping)
- Have HS codes and a country/region of origin on every SKU
- Use registration-based taxes (VAT/GST numbers are saved in Shopify)
Once you’ve completed this step, customers in the selected markets will see landed-cost pricing before they pay.
Local regulations around taxes are important to understand and should absolutely be part of your research into an international ecommerce strategy.
5. Establish local partnerships
How will you be manufacturing or distributing your product to your international customers? It’s often not sustainable to manufacture or ship everything from one place. Local partners and logistics providers who already understand the landscape help you move faster and protect margins.
For example, shoppers in Southeast Asia have little patience for slow delivery: 80% want an accurate estimated delivery date; and 73% of Thai customers call any delay beyond two days “unacceptable,” per a 2024 report from ParcelMonitor. Partners within or just outside these destinations can help you deliver on customer expectations.
This extends to your marketing strategy as well. Social credibility travels faster through local voices, especially in the Asia-Pacific region. Choose creators who align with your products, give each a unique discount code, and track performance through Shopify Collabs, which automates payouts the moment a referred order is paid.
6. Optimize your website for international searches
Tap search engine optimization (SEO) experts for your website and social media pros for paid ads, organic search, or jumping on viral trends to reach your customers exactly where they are.
Make sure you’re aware of the most popular platforms in the region, too. For example, if you’re expanding into Asia, have you thought about using WeChat? What about live shopping channels? Those are also very popular.
📚Read more: International SEO: How To Launch an International SEO Strategy
7. Offer multiple payment options
Your customers need to be able to trust you with their money. At the same time, you need to trust that your customers have the funds to make a purchase. In the digital era, offering your customers multiple payment methods is one way to bolster trust.
Allbirds, for example, offers Korean shoppers the option to pay with their bank card, or through the country’s three most popular digital wallets, Naver Pay, Kakao Pay, and Toss.
8. Provide excellent customer service and support
Customer support will always be good for your brand. Ensure help is easy to find when customers need it. AI chatbots are really helpful for customers looking for FAQ. For more urgent, specific questions, consider having a customer support team with regional knowledge to field questions and help your customers have a better experience with your brand.
These are the moments shoppers decide if they’ll buy or not. Shopify Inbox offers a live chat option that scales as you add new regions, currencies, and languages. You can easily add the app to your store and answer questions quickly with AI-powered suggested replies.
Our data also shows that about 70% of Inbox chats come from shoppers already browsing your products or cart, which makes every reply a potential close.
9. Continuously monitor and analyze performance metrics
Data is going to be important for you to measure your success in a new local market, and to determine if and how you should pivot. Monitor your performance metrics, including SEO, abandoned cart rates, average order value (AOV), and more to see how your brand is measuring up.
The data is there to help you tweak your strategy if you need to, like partnering with different distributors if delivery times are too long, or partnering with local influencers if it’s more cost-effective than paid ads on social channels.
How to manage logistics, fulfillment, and returns
Just like with domestic orders, the process for international orders doesn’t end once they leave the warehouse. Many orders find their way back through a return flow. With international shipping, there are a few more nuances to consider.
Duty-paid vs. duty-unpaid shipping
Delivered-duty-paid (DDP) means you calculate and collect all duties and taxes at checkout, then ship on a DDP label so the courier pays the fees on your behalf at the border. Customs releases prepaid parcels first, so with this method you can cut transit time by a few days in some markets. Couriers also don’t need to chase the receiver for cash.
Delivered-duty-unpaid (DDU) is the opposite. You ship without precollecting duties, and customs invoices the receiver on arrival. These can make sense for low-value goods which are below the de minimis threshold, and therefore exempt from duties and taxes.
But DDU comes with risk for higher value items. Parcels will be held until duty is paid. Some countries will return undelivered items after seven days, and you get hit with two shipping fees and an upset customer.
Returns and reverse-logistics options
Returns get a little more complicated once you cross a border. Every returning parcel needs a fresh label, plus customs paperwork.
You have to decide whether to offer prepaid returns or charge restocking and handling fees. And, if duties were collected on the outbound shipment, you’ll need a reclamation process to get those fees back after an item re-enters your warehouse.
Generally, there are three models you can use for international returns:
- Prepaid label to the origin warehouse: Ideal for high-value goods on routes with reasonable return postage, like the US and the EU. Print labels through Shopify Shipping, drop them into an automated returns portal (like Loop), and let customers initiate returns on their own.
- Local drop-off and weekly consolidation: Best for industries with high returns rates, like fashion. Partner with a local 3PL to receive and inspect returns, then send them back to your central hub once a week.
- “Keep it” programs: Works for low-cost, hard-to-resell items where shipping costs exceed margins. Refund the customer and let them keep the original.
Multi-currency and local payments with Shopify
A massive part of succeeding globally is offering customers payment in their local currency. With multi-currency for Shopify Payments, you’ll be able to grow globally by acting locally. Multi-currency allows merchants to sell and settle in local currencies.
In addition to managing everything in one place, Shopify Payments allows you to offer customer-friendly international storefronts and checkout experiences. Multi-currency payments can improve your performance internationally in three ways:
Experiment with growth
Develop a global-first mindset with a multi-currency offering. Multi-currency offers the flexibility you need to make decisions on a country-by-country basis as the dynamics of specific international markets change.
Change your mind or see a new opportunity? Shopify’s multi-currency allows you to easily add or remove currencies. You can also go live in new markets in minutes and select only the currencies you wish to sell in.
Localize experiences
When in Rome, act like a Roman. Offer customers across the world a custom experience regardless of where your brand is headquartered. Shopify’s multi-currency has powerful built-in geolocation functionality, allowing you to show customers local currency prices based on current foreign exchange rates rounded for stability.
Integrated solution
Today, offering customers a robust multi-currency experience is a necessity. Multi-currency businesses on Shopify using Shopify Payments support the following currencies: AUD, EUR, JPY, SGD, USD, CAD, HKD, NZD, and GBP.
From product creation to payout reconciliation, you’ll now see the proper currency presented across Shopify, so you don’t need to worry about reporting inconsistencies or inaccuracies.
AI and automation for global scaling
McKinsey’s latest survey shows that 78% of organizations use AI in at least one business function, up from 55% in 2023. The top three use cases are IT, marketing and sales, and service operations.
Shopify Magic now writes high-quality product descriptions, social captions, and even alt-text in any of your store’s languages. Sidekick is a conversational partner that understands every data point in your store. It’s trained on your orders, products, traffic, and marketing data, so you can ask, “Which three SKUs sold best in Germany last quarter?” and get an answer—plus a chart—in seconds.
Tools like Shopify Flow are also helping retailers get tedious tasks done in seconds. For example, you can auto-tag high-risk orders or ping your 3PL when stock dips below a set threshold.
Global-e, the technology that drives Managed Markets, automates the entire customs process. The tool plugs in duty-paid pricing, more than 150 local payment methods, and real-time tax calculation for over 200 countries. Shoppers choose Pix in Brazil, iDEAL in the Netherlands, or AliPay in China. You still get paid in US dollars, and leave the chargeback and fraud risk to Global-e.
Making international ecommerce easier
Selling internationally doesn’t need to be difficult for your ecommerce business. With Shopify, you can use tools like Shopify Managed Markets to customize pricing, tailor storefronts, create custom markets, and drive traffic to your international storefronts. Our analytics and insights can help you map out where to go next.
Read more
- How 3 Brands Scaled Their Ecommerce Subscription Model 100-350%
- Marketing Calendars for 2018’s Holidays: Ecommerce, Social & Sales
- Best Holiday Campaigns with Advertising Examples from 335 Years of Retail
- Dynamic Pricing: The Art and Black Magic of Situational Pricing
- The Dark Side of Entrepreneurship with Data & Resources for Help
- Harnessing the Power of Feedback Loops to Build a Business Customers Can't Resist
- 17 User-Generated Content Examples and 5 Tactics to Grow $15M+ in Annual Sales
- The 4 Words at the Root of All Meaningful Client-Agency Relationships
- B2B Ecommerce Features for Acquiring, Selling & Retaining Customers
- 11 Ecommerce Checkout Best Practices: Improve the Checkout Experience and Increase Conversions
International ecommerce strategy FAQ
Can I sell worldwide with Shopify?
Yes. Shopify lets you list products in multiple currencies and ship to over 200 countries, and features like Managed Markets localize prices, currencies, duties, taxes, and payment methods for each market. Add region-specific domains, language translations, and local shipping carriers, and you can operate a global storefront from a single Shopify admin.
What is the best international ecommerce website?
There’s no one “best” global platform for every brand. Your choice depends on needs like catalog size, customization, and regional compliance. Shopify is recognized for cross-border selling because it bundles multi-currency checkout, 180-language translation support, over 150 local payment methods, and automated duty/tax collection into one stack.
What is a global ecommerce strategy?
A global ecommerce strategy is how you grow into markets outside your native one. A global ecommerce strategy takes into account what you need to do before, during, and after expansion.
How do I start international ecommerce?
Start growing into international ecommerce by understanding where your customers are and if your product fills a gap in that region. Market research will greatly help you determine any further strategies or tactics you need to create and deploy to achieve your international growth goals.
