One of the intriguing initial findings of the J.C. Williams Group/Shop.org international e-commerce study is that medium-sized retailers and mid market consumer brands are expanding into international markets ahead of larger retailers.

We discussed this finding at the June Internet Retailer show with executives from a number of commerce platforms that primarily work with mid market retailers. The reaction was mixed.

Some validated the finding and others mentioned that they had seen an increased interest in international e-commerce capabilities in RFPs. A few admitted they hadn’t even looked at order-related data from their e-commerce clients that are shipping internationally.

One curious executive pulled together a data set that showed country-by-country destinations for all their platform clients’ international orders. Both the dollar volume of international orders ─ a seven-figure dollar total in a single month ─ and the broad global distribution was a surprise.

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Where Are International e-Commerce Orders Shipped?

The following charts break down the distribution of orders, first by region and then by the Top 10 country destinations.

Top destinations for international e-commerce orders (by regions).

Top 10 destinations for international e-commerce orders - by country

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Some observations:

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>By only including orders shipped to a non-U.S. address, this data set doesn’t take into account international orders that were forwarded from U.S. shipping addresses maintained/serviced by international e-commerce solution providers and freight forwarders. This is a common way international customers receive goods from U.S. e-commerce sites.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>Although this is just a one-month snapshot, orders shipped by mid-sized retailers closely mirror the global distribution of all e-commerce orders (although Australian and French consumers seem to really enjoy shopping from the mid-market retail site and pure plays).

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>Although e-commerce activity in emerging APAC markets is heating up, the UK alone generates 40% more e-commerce revenue than Japan, China and South Korea combined.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>When UK revenues stand apart from Western Europe, Canada (27%) accounts for almost as much revenue as the Western European countries combined.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>Australia is becoming an increasingly significant e-commerce market. This data point supports the conversations we’re having with senior international e-commerce executives.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>Japan generates slightly more e-commerce revenue than China although China’s growth is 3 to 4X that of Japan

This is one month of e-commerce orders totaling a seven figure aggregate dollar volume and therefore is a very small slice of the global e-commerce pie.

What does this data say to you?  What else are you seeing when you look at your international order volume?

Are you looking?

Thanks,

The J.C. Williams Group

P.S. We’re wrapping up the executive interview component of the study this month, so if you’re a senior retail executive in charge of, or involved with, international e-commerce and would like to join us, email jokamura@jcwg.com and kent.allen@researchtrust.com.