E-retailers and affiliate partners missing out on global sales, survey says
87% of companies polled at a recent retail e-commerce affiliate conference said they would like to sell to non-U.S. markets, but 79% said their overseas business amounted to 0-10% of total sales, World Market Express reports.
World Market Express polled attendees and exhibitors at the recent Affiliate Summit West conference in Las Vegas about the extent of their global e-commerce business. 29% said that they and their clients had no non-U.S. business, and another 50% said that 10% or less of their business came from outside the U.S.
34% of respondents cited as the biggest obstacles to global e-commerce the overall expense of handling international orders and a lack of internal expertise. 21% cited the need for international shipping and payment systems.
The survey also revealed a common complaint among e-commerce affiliates: that
web traffic they forward to retail e-commerce partners is often wasted because their partners are unable to handle orders from outside the U.S.
Among those respondents that do sell overseas, 28% cited the U.K. as among their three largest foreign markets. Canada was ranked second, cited by 25%, followed by Australia, 11%. Germany, China and India were cited by 9%; Japan, 6%; and France, 3%.
Orem, UT-based World Market Express, a unit of Access Technology Solutions LLC, is a provider of global e-commerce services including payment processing, fulfillment and shipping.
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