Online buyers without borders |
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Online buyers without borders
Amazon.com has country-specific websites in the U.K., France, Germany, Canada, China and Japan. But does the ecommerce giant always need to set up shop in other regions of the world to grab business there? An interesting new report from Forrester Research finds that consumers around the world are increasingly becoming cross-border buyers -- shopping with domestic online sites as well as those from other countries.
Forrester analyst Zia Daniell Wigder writes that buyers around the world are "consulting multiple sources for information" and "turning to an increasingly global set of shopping sites." One prominent example is the U.K., where 29 percent of online buyers say they have ordered products from U.S. websites. Wigder writes:
A common language has helped drive significant cross-border online commerce between the US and the UK. Despite ties with their European neighbors, more UK consumers have ordered from US Web sites than have ordered from other European countries. Companies that have not yet begun to explore international shipping options are missing out on an opportunity to be part of international consumers’ increasingly global consideration set.
Amazon's international segment -- which includes the U.K., French, German, Chinese and Japanese sites -- is doing quite well, with second-quarter sales up 16 percent to $2.2 billion (they would have been up 28 percent if not for foreign currency exchange rates, the company reported).
Is Amazon's flagship U.S. ecommerce site also attracting more shoppers from abroad?
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About Eric Engleman
ERIC ENGLEMAN is senior technology staff writer for TechFlash and the Puget Sound Business Journal, covering online retail giant Amazon.com. Engleman tracks Amazon's increasingly complex business, spanning ecommerce, Kindle, cloud computing, and more. He's been covering technology and other industries for the Business Journal since 2003.
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