UK: the leading global exporter of online goods in 2013
loading...
Fashion
The report, which analyzed Google searches across six main e-commerce markets that make up half of global e-commerce volumes, indicates that cross-border online trade for the UK, the US, Germany, the Nordics, the Netherlands and France is expect to grow fivefold from 15 billion pounds in 2013 to 79 billion in 2020. OC&C and Google also found that as the retail sector is becoming more and more globally linked as trading between the countries continues to grow.
UK 
beats Germany and US as leading exporter of online products
The UK came out ahead of Germany and US, who both achieved 12 million pounds and 110 million pounds in trade surpluses respectively. In a previous report, OC&C and Google predicated online sales generated by UK retailers from overseas markets to grow sevenfold to 28 billion pounds by 2020. Peter Fitzgerald, director at Google, commented: “The global increase in the number of people with internet access coupled with a rise in consumer confidence, combine to provide the ideal market conditions for e-commerce.”
“The success of UK retailers can partly be attributed to operating in the most advanced e-commerce market in the world, but also to the high level of trust international customers have in UK brands and retailers. Looking to the future, any retailer wishing to enter the market must adopt a digital-first strategy to succeed,” added Fitzgerald.
While eBay and Amazon remain the pioneers of online retail, a growing number of specialist retailers have proven it is possible to successfully internationalize a brand via digital commerce, or establishing a combination of physical and digital commerce. Brands and retailers such as Asos, Burberry, Hugo Boss, Adidas, Farfetch, and House of Fraser are leading examples and account for the top most 20 searched retailers by international buyers.
Anita Balchandani, partner at OC&C, said: “Over the next decade, online retail will become even more international. This represents a great opportunity for retailers by providing a new, capital-light approach to grow rapidly. At the same time, internationalisation poses many challenges and will require retailers to master new capabilities and complexities.”
Asos leading the way in localisation
“Localisation is crucial to tap into new pockets of demand, from tailoring the range on offer, to localised marketing activity, to ensuring that delivery and payment methods are best suited to country requirements... It is equally critical to localise only where it matters to customers, to avoid the cost and complexity of over-tailoring the retail offer by country. Asos, for instance, services customers around the world from a single location in the UK, but executes its digital marketing activity in a localised way, allowing it to strike the right balance between customer relevance and cost,” added Balchandani.
Asos recently released a trading statement for the four months to December 31, 2013, which stated that retail sales grew 38 percent to 335.7 million pounds year-on-year, with international retail sales accounting for 60 percent of total sales. Nick Robertson, CEO at Asos said that the results "were driven by significant improvements to our customer proposition, including better delivery options, additional payment methods and the roll out of our premier service in key international markets".
Robertson and Balchandani are on the same page when it comes to the internationalisation of online retailers. “As the global retail landscape continues to develop, we also expect retailers to look for innovative ways of shipping goods directly from the source of supply to the buyer – making international delivery between countries even faster and creating a seamless shopping experience,” concluded Balchandani.