US most sought after market for UK retailers

A majority of the retailers in the UK consider US to be their most important e-commerce market, even though less than half of them sell their products in the latter country, says a recently conducted survey. This development is due to the pound hitting an all-time low, while the dollar continues to perform well against the other currencies of the world.

This month, UK's pound is trading around $1.25, the lowest it's been since 1985. The survey conducted by cross-border e-commerce specialist Global-e states that the new bill handling taxes made buying products from foreign e-retailers a cheaper option for US shoppers. Following the bill, the US now only applies import taxes on orders amounting to more than $800, resulting in a lot of orders being tax-free for US consumers.

Besides, the market has a huge scope for the UK retailers, considering that it is one of the largest and most sophisticated markets in the world. The online sales in the US reached $341.7 billion last year from $298.3 billion in 2014. The e-commerce market in North America is expected to grow by 59 per cent to reach $579.9 billion in 2019, making it the second largest market in the world, second only to Asia, adds the report.

Global-e interacted with 250 British retailers and 59 per cent of them believe that the US is the important e-retail market for them. However, only 44 per cent of those retailers actually sell their products in the country, while merely 13 per cent are planning to start selling their products in the most sought after market.

The study says that 51 per cent of the surveyed retailers are motivated with the growth opportunity and 48 per cent are targeting US shoppers without any localisation. About 49 per cent of them consider laws and regulation complexity as a major obstacle.

“Now is an opportune time for British retailers to do business in the United States. US consumers’ appetite for cross-border shopping is growing rapidly. Following the new rules, they can now buy more for the same price from abroad, which is great news for foreign retailers selling into the US. Particularly for British retailers, where post-Brexit shock has caused the American dollar to surge against the British pound,” said Nir Debbi CMO and co-founder, Global-e.