Any Other Business: 29 January 2021

This week’s AOB uncovers the latest e-commerce news from around the world including the UK’s thriving cross-border market, and how to beat doorstep package thieves.

It’s good news for UK-based e-commerce sellers. New research has revealed that cross-border e-commerce sales from the UK enjoyed a 57% year-on-year increase in 2020¹.

Neil Kuschel, CEO Europe at Global-e², which co-produced the report with IMRG³, says the increased demand from the EU highlights a strong and growing appetite for UK brands.

“Encouragingly, many UK brands who are managing the Brexit complexities internally and ensuring their consumers have a seamless experience, are seeing no change in post-Brexit EU sales. In order to reap the benefits of the growing cross-border opportunity, UK brands and retailers selling online must now treat EU markets in the same way they would any other international market.”⁴

For those selling to the country, there are plenty of opportunities too – 36% of online shoppers in the UK buy online from other countries thanks to the wide availability of international shipping.

Wherever you’re thinking of selling to, check out our dedicated country guides to give your strategy a boost.

Although the festive holidays already feel like a distant memory, recently released sales data from the period should be of interest to e-commerce businesses for your new year’s sales strategy.

US shoppers spent US$201.32 billion online during the November-December season, up 45.2% from US$138.65 billion in 2019, according to a report by Digital Commerce 360⁵. That means that more than $1 in every $4 spent on retail purchases for the period came from online orders. The impressive festive sales came at the end of a year where e-commerce reached record levels due to the pandemic and subsequent store closures.

Make sure your business is ready for the next big sales days with our 2021 E-commerce Calendar 2021.

2020 may have been a record year for e-commerce sales, but with it came an increase in package theft.

In a recent consumer survey⁶, 43% of Americans said they had a package stolen in 2020 – a seven-point rise over 2019. Much of the problem lies in the increase in deliveries of the average consumer: 49% of respondents said they get a delivery at least once a week, up from 44% in 2019, whilst 10% of respondents said they have packages delivered daily, up from five percent in 2019.

Sellers can mitigate the risk by offering their customers flexible delivery options such as choosing a specific delivery time slot, or requesting the package be left with a neighbor. Learn more, here.

European tech start-up Oveit⁷ has announced its plans to expand further within the US market. The platform is known for its livestream shopping service, Streams.live, which lets retailers interact with, and sell directly to, consumers through video sessions in real time.  

The Romanian company launched the Streams.live technology in October last year, and since then has won an impressive client list of major brands including Renault Group, L’Oreal and Vodafone. Oveit is now focused on becoming the world leader in livestream shopping.

Livestreaming is set to grow substantially across the world in the next few years. In China, it’s already a popular part of online sales channels, and is a regular feature on Singles’ Day.

With 2021 now in full swing, don’t forget to check out our free 2021 E-commerce Calendar for all the sales dates and industry events that will give your business a boost. Next up, Valentine’s Day…