Posts in category: Cross-Border

As cross-border e-commerce sales continue to grow, US brands have great potential to reach customers worldwide. However, some aspects that brands must consider to handle international shipping in the best way to avoid headaches for the business and consumers. These include shipping costs, tax and Duty fees, and delivery times. If these aspects are not handled properly, the customer experience may suffer, and the brand may have consequences, such as higher shopping cart abandonment rates, higher shipping costs and lower conversion rates.   

Offering a DDP shipping solution addresses the top consumer concerns. However, for brands, it can be overwhelming, as every country has import taxes, duties fees, and requirements. Therefore, it is essential to have a solution that provides the best user experience, cost-effective operation and practicality for the business to expand internationally successfully.    

For this reason, we will explain what DDP is, how your company can benefit from it, and how we can help your business offer and handle DDP so your business can provide the best shipping experience for your customers.   

What is DDP?  

Delivered Duty Paid (DDP) shipping is when a merchant takes responsibility for all landed costs (taxes & duties) and charges them to the end customer without paying additional fees or dealing with customs delays.

This means that the merchant is responsible for the entire shipping process, from delivery of the package to payment of taxes and fees to the delivery to the end customer at the final destination. This helps build trust and improve the customer experience, as they have paid for everything up front; there will be no surprise fees when it arrives at the final destination.    

What is the difference between DDP and DDU? 

DDU is when the merchant is responsible for the entire shipping process, from sending to ensuring that the goods arrive safely at a destination. However, once the package is in the final country destination, the buyer is responsible for paying all the necessary import fees.   

The difference between DDP and DDU is that in DDU, the customer may have to pay import taxes without knowing the exact amount until the package arrives. As fees often come as a surprise, it creates a poor customer experience and can lead customers not to accept the goods, financially impacting the merchant.   

What are the benefits of offering DDP?  

The benefits of offering DDP are the following:  

• Be transparent with taxes and duties fees  
• Custom clear orders 
• Avoid delivery delays 
• Avoid extra costs 
• Build trust  
• Enhance customer service  
• Lower cart abandonment  
• Increase website conversion rates 

How can BorderGuru help your business handle and offer DDP on your Shopify store?  

Offering a DDP solution benefits both the brand and the end customer. Brands need to research tax and duty fees and import laws per country and calculate each product that will sell cross-border. If done on your own, this can become very overwhelming and might discourage you as a brand top opening your cross-border channel.  

With BorderGuru, you have a strategic partner that can help your Shopify store offer DDP and handle all import requirements for each country. Our solution takes everything from product mapping to tax filling. You don’t have to worry about import requirements, as we’ll have everything ready for you to ship your products as if it were local shipping.   

Our cross-border solution is a free plug-and-play app that can is integrated into your Shopify store within 10 minutes. It automatically and accurately calculates taxes and duties at checkout and offers your customers competitive shipping rates.   

BorderGuru is, as can be seen, a one-shop-stop solution for international shipping. It allows you to reach your customers regardless of location, as you can choose up to 200 countries to ship to.   

Our solution helps your brand to provide the best possible customer shop experience to increase trust, loyalty and sales.   

Contact us to learn more about how your brand can expand quickly internationally!    

As a Shopify store owner in the US, you are undoubtedly interested in selling your goods to the EU and UK markets. Since e-commerce sales in these markets have grown massively and will continue for years to come, the opportunity for US brands to make a profit is significant. This is also why your company should be informed and aware of IOSS and UK VAT and have a solution to handle compliance for your company correctly.   

What are the current European Union import regulations?

Current EU import regulations are different from those before July 2021. Now US sellers must collect VAT on all goods they sell to the EU customers; the difference was that before, goods valued at 22 euros or less were Import VAT exempted. Therefore, you now need to determine the VAT rates of specific goods for all the EU countries you deliver to.

Additionally, you must declare in-customs all goods entering the EU regardless of their value. This means that when you sell to a customer located in any of the 27 EU members, the parcel must come with a customs declaration form.

What is IOSS and how can BorderGuru help me with cross-border selling to the EU?

The Import One-Stop-Shop (IOSS) is an electronic portal that eases the process of complying with VAT e-commerce obligations on imported goods valued < 150 EUR. With IOSS, you do not have to register in each EU country where you sell your products. Instead, you only pay the country of registration and then the authorities are in charge of distributing the taxes to the local tax authorities in which the customer is located; this makes the collection, declaration and payment of the VAT for US sellers easier.    

Even though IOSS intends to make this process easier for non-EU brands, they still need to deal with VAT registration, finding a local fiscal representative, collecting taxes from customers, recording and filing, etc.  

With BorderGuru, compliance with EU tax authorities becomes a simple task for your business. BorderGuru imports into the EU, which helps your company eliminate the complexity of selling and sending to the EU. Here are some benefits of using BorderGuru: 

• We represent you before EU tax authorities  
• We provide you with an IOSS number  
• We provide HS codes   
• We calculate taxes and duties to be paid at the checkout by your customers   
• We file your business` taxes on your behalf and keep a record  
• We offer custom cleared orders 
• We guarantee the accuracy of our calculation at checkout

What about UK VAT and how can BorderGuru support you?  

Since the UK separated from the EU, it has import tax regulations. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is responsible for tax collection and regulation. If the products you sell to UK customers cost more than135 GBP, you must register your business and pay taxes to HMRC.   

BorderGuru helps you make this process easy for your business, so you do not have to worry about dealing with it on your own and instead focus on selling and connecting with more UK customers.   

We provide you with the same benefits as with the EU, such as UK VAT number, we calculate, file and record taxes and duties, and provide your customers with custom cleared orders. We guarantee the accuracy of our calculation at checkout.   

BorderGuru offers a complete cross-border solution that helps you with IOSS and UK VAT compliance and allows you to ship to 200 countries at a competitive price, calculating tax and duties at checkout and providing customs cleared orders. Additionally, it is effortless to integrate into your Shopify online store.   

If you want to bring your cross-border sales to the next level, get in touch with us! 

The goal of any online shop owner is to generate sales and delight customers through that channel, whether they are new customers or existing ones. Website traffic and conversion come into play here, as both go hand in hand. Without traffic to their website, there is no other way to get leads to turn into actual customers.  

Traffic can increase your business’s chances of growing, expanding your product line, selling to other countries, and developing more services or products. On the other hand, keep in mind that traffic itself does not create sales, and this is when conversion plays an important role.

Before we go deeper into how to increase your traffic conversion, we will start by defining web traffic and conversion. 

What is Website Traffic? The simple definition is the number of visitors a website gets. Years ago, website traffic alone was a crucial metric. Now it is known that this is only part of the equation, as the first step is getting visitors, but they cannot count as customers/sales until conversion happens.   

What is Conversion? Conversion is when website visitors complete a desired action, whether purchasing a product, signing up for a service, downloading content like white papers, or completing a web form.   

How do you calculate your website conversion? This process consists in knowing if your online shop is giving results, it is essential to measure your website conversion. 

The following is the formula to calculate your website’s conversion rate: 

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): 8 Ways To Get Started (hubspot.com)

Suppose you have different calls to action within your website, such as downloading content, subscribing to your email list, and purchasing a product. In that case, you can calculate the conversion rate of each, but make sure you only count the number of visitors on the websites where the offer is listed. 

 It is important to implement strategies that can lead to sustainable growth to convert your new and existing traffic and leads. We present you with the top 10 ways to increase your store conversions. 

Top 10 ways to increase your website’s conversion  

1. Tell your customers why they should buy from you 

This information is essential to differentiate your brand from your competitors. Nowadays, consumers care not only about the product but also about the purpose and background story of the brand. Identify value elements for your customers, and excel on at least one of these elements to connect with your target market. Once it has been identified, focus on it wherever you can, from the homepage to the About page, etc. 

2. Simplify the user experience 

In order to engage your visitors and have a higher chance of converting them into your customers, it is vital to have a simple homepage to understand and navigate and with a clear call to action. For example, you can display your best sellers, discounts, or new collections. This way, you can attract your audience and drive them to make a purchase. 

It is also essential to have a search feature: This is helpful for visitors who know what they are looking for and tend to use this feature. This may prevent customers from bouncing out of your website because it is difficult to find what they want.   

3. Test your page loading speed  

The performance of your website is a make-it-or-break deal for your business. If your website takes too long to load, your visitors will bounce out immediately, and you will miss out on them finding out about your brand and products. There is also a high possibility that they will leave with a wrong impression, and it could be harder to get them to visit again.  

Loading speed is important and should take an average of three seconds to enter your website. Make sure you test the loading speed of your website on every device, as it should perform the same or about the same; otherwise, you may miss visitors who use a mobile phone or tablet. According to Google, 53% of mobile visitors leave a website if it takes more than three seconds to load.   

4. Optimize your products page 

When consumers browse for a product, many website options come out, so this is when you have to set yourself apart. The best way to do it is by making sure your product pages have the following:   

• Craft concisely and short descriptions of your products, highlighting the primary information   
• Use quality images, preferably professional 3D   
• Educational videos (How to use your product)   
• Showcase product reviews   

 5- Implement trust boosters  

Nowadays, with many brands and product options on the Internet, it can be challenging to know which site to trust unless you are a well-known brand like H&M, Nike, etc. The best way to build trust among your visitors is to show that your existing customers are loyal and what they think about your brand and your products.   

Social proof can give a big tust boost. You can display product reviews on your website in writing, images, or videos, but make sure they are accurate and that you have permission to publish them publicly. You can do this also on social media. Our recommendation would be to use the stories or live features so that you can engage better with your audience and build a stronger trust bond.   

6- Display clear information regarding price, shipping, extra fees, and out-of-stock products 

According to Baymard Institution, one of the top reasons for cart abandonment is that extra costs are too high. To reduce cart abandonment, it is important not to mislead your customers and be upfront regarding all the fees incurred, including shipping, taxes & duties, delivery information and out-of-stock products. Having clear information on your site and checkout page will also help you build trust that can be converted into sales.   

 Suppose your business encounters high shipping costs and unclear information on tax and duties. In that case, we recommend you look for a cross-border solution that can provide you and your customers with a smooth shipping experience. BorderGuru is a suitable option for you, as we offer competitive shipping costs and calculate taxes & duties fees, displaying all fee information clearly at checkout. This helps to be transparent and expedite delivery, as all items are customs cleared.     

7- Simplify your checkout process   

The checkout feature is the last step customers go through to make a purchase, so it must be as flawless and easiest as possible to avoid unfinished transactions. It is essential to provide different checkout options, such as Member Checkout, Guest Checkout and PayPal Checkout. Simplifying the tour checkout process will help reduce the chances of your customers abandoning their carts at the last moment.   

Another way to maximize the checkout process is to include two or more checkouts on your website, for example, at the top and bottom. As they scroll, the checkout option moves along, and they can easily click on it.   

Remember to consider your customers’ experience and put yourself in their shoes to understand their wants and needs, to check whether improvements need to be made to improve their experience and increase your sales. 

8- Offer free exciting content for your audience  

Having a designated space within your website to offer content related to what you sell, exciting and relevant to your audience, can be an excellent opportunity to drive traffic to your website and convert visitors into actual customers. Don’t forget to add calls-to-action to your content so that it can actually help increase conversion rates.   

It is also important to constantly update your blog, as it helps keep customers coming back for more and building loyalty.   

9- Display coupon codes, promotions and real-time purchases  

As soon as users enter your homepage, you have a few seconds to build excitement and drive them to your products. So, you have to be mindful and develop a strategy to attract them immediately and create the urgency to buy your products. This can be done by displaying discounts, promotions, or pop-ups that offer a coupon for their first purchase in exchange for their email. To create urgency and trust, you can also display real-time purchases on your homepage. 

10- Send personalized emails and notifications  

Personalization can be an effective strategy to increase customer retention and loyalty and boost your conversion rates. All you need is information regarding your customers and visitors, such as pages visited, products bought in the past, where are they from, etc. 

Once you have the information, you can work on personalized content, for example sending discounts on the products they have looked into or bought before and emails with relevant and helpful information about the products they are interested in or topics related to these products. For example, if a customer is interested in summer dresses, you could send promotional emails or information about summer fashion. Remember to maximize the use of the information you have about your customers and visitors,to turn it into a positive result in your business.   

 All the recommendations above have one thing in common; they all focus on the user. This means that before you decide to change or add something to your website, you should research your target market and current visitors to improve and grow your business. 

BorderGuru offers you a hassle-free international shipping service and a pleasant experience for your customers at checkout. Contact Us Now and start converting your traffic into customers.  

Shipping costs have become a key factor for e-commerce businesses. In 2018 alone, US companies spent $1.49 trillion on shipping, while mid-size companies overspend around 13% on shipping annually. This article shows how important it is for online shops, especially small-medium size companies (SMEs), to research and create a shipping strategy that suits their business needs.    

For SMEs, international shipping is sometimes a big challenge rather than an opportunity to grow their business. Before creating or changing any strategy to offer international shipping, companies should research and look into different shipping options to find a profitable way to grow their business internationally and deal with the hurdles of cross-border shipping.    

Here are five suggestions for businesses to save on shipping costs:  

Shipping rates

Shipping rates can be a make-or-break factor for online stores, especially SMEs; it is essential to look into different carriers’ options and cross-border solutions to find the most suitable for their business and customers.  

 Although the most common carriers like USPS, USP, and FedEx offer rates for small businesses, they may not be the best deal. Using third-party logistics brokers may offer better rates for smaller volumes could be a better option.  

BorderGuru, on the other hand, is part of Hermes, a global logistics champion base in Germany and offers competitive rates for cross-border shipping for online stores. BorderGuru is not a broker; it is a one-stop-shop solution focused on online stores that consolidate thousands of online orders from different stores and ship them to 200 countries worldwide. Getting to a specific volume to get a good deal is not a problem with BorderGuru.

Packing supplies  

Packing supplies are also essential to consider, and if not thoroughly planned, businesses can waste a lot of money on them. Nowadays, there are many hacks to save on this; here are some tips:    

• Get an affordable shredder machine and recycle old boxes, paper bags, or paper sheets as a protective material for packages.  
• Get packing supplies at wholesale (bubble-wrapped paper, mailers, and dunnage).  
• Look for free packaging or discounts that some carriers offer. 

•  Weight and dimensions of the package  

Weight and dimensions play an important role in the shipping cost. Being wise in choosing the right packaging size for the product can make a significant difference. For example, using mailer envelopes or poly bags for small non-fragile items like clothing can be a better cost-effective idea rather than using boxes. 

For businesses that sell heavy or bulky items, the most cost-effective option is to look into offering a flat rate. Since rates are calculated based on weight and dimensions, shipping certain things would be more expensive using a variable rate.   

Insurance   

Another way to save is by cutting extra services. Depending on the product’s value, one of these additional services could be insurance. It is helpful to evaluate if shipping insurance is necessary based on the product’s value and the loss/damage rate that the business has experienced. If the rate of loss/damage is too low and the product’s value is not significantly high, then it is not worth spending money on insurance. 

Some cross-border solutions like BorderGuru have less than a 1% loss/damage rate, making it possible for businesses to add that percentage to their loss/damage concept in their budget and save by not paying extra fees on insurance. 

Suppose your business needs to have shipping insurance. In that case, third-party package insurers are usually cheaper than the options offered by shipping carriers, so please be sure to evaluate different options before making any big commitment. In the end, businesses should choose the most cost-effective option.  

Educate customers about shipping costs and delivery times   

Displaying clear and concise information about shipping costs, delivery times, tariffs, and taxes will help businesses avoid cart abandonment, extra costs, and unsatisfied customers. Being transparent will build trust with customers, avoid misunderstandings about shipping fees and delivery times, and not miss repurchases. 

Borderguru, as a cross-border solution, can help businesses optimize the customer’s checkout experience by displaying clear information on the shipping fees, taxes, duties, and delivery time. Also, since customers pay all fees upfront, the delivery experience is smooth, as the package is already customs clear, increasing the chances of customer retention and repurchases.  

Shipping costs are inevitable, and as e-commerce continues to grow, these costs may also increase. Businesses need to do their research and optimize these costs without losing sight of their customers’ needs, so they can reinvest in other aspects of their business and remain competitive. 

Is your Shopify business looking for an efficient solution for shipping internationally? Then try BorderGuru and discover the endless possibilities for your business to grow! 

The Cross-Border Market 

What is Cross-Border trade? The simple definition is: selling your products online to international customers. According to the International Trade Organization, E-commerce is currently considered the most important channel and part of any business’s digital strategy.  

In the last few years, online shopping has grown and become more popular, with technology playing a key role in making it easier to sell and buy through this channel. Some key events in technology that directly impacted online shopping were launching smartphones, creating new payment methods like Google Wallet and Apple Pay, and the shopping features on social media platforms like Facebook Marketplace and Instagram Shop.  

Fast-forward to 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world and governments-imposed lockdowns, the only way for retailers to stay in business was to sell online and companies that already had an online presence became more popular. E-commerce sales have grown steadily, as seen from the graph below. From 2019 pre-pandemic to 2021 post-pandemic, online sales have increased by US$1.57 trillion, and it seems like this trend will continue for the next few years.  

When it comes to selling internationally through E-commerce, the size of the pie for businesses can potentially become bigger as more visitors can convert into clients. The borders for selling and buying have become almost non-existent; more customers look for products from other countries. Online users worldwide have grown from 3.4 billion users in 2016 to 4.5 billion users in 2022; this increases the chances for businesses, including SMEs, to capture clients from other countries. 

Considering what we stated before, we created a list of benefits and critical factors to think about when selling through cross-border E-commerce.  

Cross-border E-commerce Benefits 

Stay competitive
The growth of E-commerce sales and internet users play a crucial role in the development of a business, so to stay competitive and current, companies must be ready and open to this channel.  

International expansion
Cross-border E-commerce selling across different countries has become easier as there is little to zero investment, making international expansion possible for SMEs. This sales channel offers the opportunity to sell and buy without the hassles of geographical boundaries, easing the reach of customers in other regions where there is demand.  

Increased business profit
As businesses get their products to a broader range of consumers, sales and demand are more likely to grow, resulting in higher revenue. Selling to other countries through E-commerce gives SMEs the chance to increase sales with no loss to bear and no limitations.  

Brand awareness 
Businesses can benefit from cross-border E-commerce in terms of brand awareness as it helps them reach the international market. It also opens the possibility for companies to customize their products to suit different market needs. By offering unique or customized products to the target market, the brand can gain higher brand awareness and recognition.  

Enhanced business sustainability
Since E-commerce platforms already have recognition worldwide, brands can better sustain themselves in the international market with more awareness and popularity when selling using Cross-border. It also allows companies to create a mark in the online world without higher costs and little investment. Online sales can be profitable for companies and worth sustaining.  

Cross-Border E-commerce Considerations  

Understand the local Market
It is essential that once businesses have an idea of the country or countries that demand their products, they do their research on the local market or markets. This is to be able to tailor the message and position that the product will have, for example, the local language, local currency, the local form of payments, and keeping an eye on cultural differences to avoid misunderstandings of your brand or product.   

Different payment methods
As mentioned in the previous point, it is essential to localize some aspects of your business. A strategy to do is to offer wider payment options. Nowadays, credit cards and PayPal are a must in many countries, but Apple Pay and direct bank transfers are commonly used in some countries or regions like Europe. Currently, businesses in Shopify can offer Apple Pay and even let customers pay with their Amazon accounts. It is particularly important as companies give consumers various ways to buy their products more conveniently.  

Logistics
The three crucial elements to consider in Cross-border E-commerce are delivery accuracy, time zones, and returns.  

Delivery accuracy and time zones
The key is to offer clear information and a reliable tracking system to build trust and get repurchases from buyers.  

Returns
Research and understand the return rate and legislation of the countries that the business is selling toEnsureve a transparent process and policies to handle returns and communicate them clearly to customers.  

Taxes and duties
When businesses decide to sell internationally, taxes and duties can get in their way if they do not research correctly and follow the necessary process. Companies need to have this information and check how it will be handled and communicated to customers. For example, it might be easier and more transparent for customers to see a price with tax included and to pay duties upfront along with shipping. This way, customers do not have to worry about further costs once their package arrives.  

Customer service 
When it comes to customer service, businesses need to pay careful attention to language and time zones. When businesses do not have enough resources to have staff that speak the local language of the country or countries they are selling to, we advise having a handy translator tool and patience to understand customers who might not speak English. If your demand is sufficient regarding time zones, it is best to consider hiring a customer organization system or a virtual assistant operating in the same time zone. These will help businesses avoid misunderstandings, be more efficient and keep customers happy.  

Conclusion

E-commerce has been growing in the last few years and is in continuous growth, which means that it is a channel that can potentially be highly profitable for businesses. Furthermore, as more people from all over the world use the internet for shopping, selling Cross-border can also allow companies to expand internationally with little investment and minimal risk.  

So why not look into what the world of cross-border E-commerce can do for your business? If you are interested in knowing how to get started and get your products to where your potential clients are, Contact US and take your business to the next level!