Post
October 27, 2025

How to Expand Ecommerce Internationally: 6 Insights from Our Latest Webinar

International expansion is no longer optional for ambitious ecommerce brands—it’s essential. But here’s the challenge: most merchants approach global growth the wrong way, treating each new market as a one-off project that drains resources and delays profitability.

In our recent webinar, Jason Nyhus (President & GM at Shopware North America) and Dan Breuer (CCO at ExpandNow) broke down exactly how to scale internationally without sacrificing margins or momentum. If you missed the live session, here are the six critical takeaways every ecommerce leader needs to know.

1. Cross-Border Digital Commerce Is Growing 2-4x Faster Than Digital Commerce

“Cross-border digital commerce is usually anywhere from two to four times faster growing than digital commerce in general.” – Dan Breuer, CCO at ExpandNow

The data tells a clear story: while retail commerce grows at 0-5% annually and digital commerce at 5-10%, cross-border digital commerce is accelerating at 2-4x that rate. This isn’t a trend—it’s a fundamental shift in how consumers shop globally.

Why the explosive growth? Consumers can now buy from brands anywhere in the world as easily as they shop locally. Social platforms like TikTok Shop and Instagram have made brands globally relevant overnight, eliminating the traditional retail distribution barriers.

The bottom line: If your products have appeal beyond your home market, international expansion should be a top-five strategic priority.

2. Most Brands Are Unprepared for the Complexity of Global Expansion

“The first thing people come in with is a strong bias towards trying to use what they already have in place… but you can’t just take what’s built for one market and simply try to land it in another.” – Jason Nyhus, President & GM at Shopware North America

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: most brands underestimate what it takes to sell internationally. They assume they can simply extend their existing payment processor, tax system, and fraud tools to new markets.

But international commerce introduces entirely new challenges:

Tax obligations in countries where you have no physical presence
Local payment methods your US-based processor doesn’t support
Compliance requirements that vary dramatically by market
Fraud patterns and acceptance rates you’ve never encountered

The brands that succeed are the ones who approach international expansion as a new capability to build—not just an extension of what they already have.

3. The Profitability Math Is Often Upside Down

“When you operate at scale—a hundred million dollars—and you have a team to support that business, now you need to do the same amount of business processes to support something that is roughly five percent of the same market.” – Jason Nyhus, Shopware

Here’s the paradox: the upfront cost of international expansion is often disproportionate to the initial revenue opportunity.

A $100M brand expanding into five new markets might only generate an additional 5% revenue initially. But the operational lift—legal entities, tax compliance, payment infrastructure, customer service in new languages—requires nearly the same resources as their entire $100M operation.

This is why so many international expansion projects stall. The business case simply doesn’t work when you’re building everything from scratch for each market.

The solution: Find partners and platforms that let you redeploy capabilities across markets, rather than rebuilding from zero each time.

The Hidden Margin Killers in International Commerce

Beyond the strategic insights, Dan shared three tactical ways brands unknowingly erode 2-4% of their international GMV:

1. Foreign Exchange Rates

Many payment providers and Merchant of Record solutions monetize heavily on FX conversion. Brands often don’t realize they’re paying 2-3% above market rates just to convert currencies.

2. Cash Flow Timing

Traditional Merchant of Record models pay out on 30-day terms. That delayed cash flow has a real financial cost—roughly 50 basis points in today’s economy—because you can’t reinvest that capital into inventory or marketing.

3. High Upfront Fixed Costs

Projects that require hundreds of thousands in upfront investment often don’t become profitable until year three or four. Modern solutions should have minimal cash investment upfront so you can be profitable within months.

At $5M in international revenue, recovering 2-4% means $100K-$200K annually—real budget you could reinvest in inventory, marketing, or your next market entry.

What Platform Capabilities Matter Most

“Look for commerce platforms that don’t charge a revenue share on the software itself… and provide unlimited channels as part of your relationship.” – Jason Nyhus, Shopware

When evaluating ecommerce platforms for international expansion, focus on:

Multi-site, multi-storefront architecture:

Manage multiple countries from a single backend without paying per additional site. Avoid platforms that force you to create separate instances for each market.

Open ecosystem:

Access to best-in-class apps and extensions for payments, tax, fraud, and merchant of record. Don’t get locked into a platform’s preferred commercial relationships.

Flexible provider support:

The ability to use different solutions in different markets. You might be your own merchant in the US but use merchant of record in the EU—your platform should support both models elegantly.

No revenue-share tax:

Platforms that charge a percentage of GMV create a “tax on your growth.” Look for subscription-based pricing that scales with your needs, not your revenue.

Where to Start: Market Selection Strategy

When asked which markets brands should prioritize, both Jason and Dan emphasized two key factors:

1. Follow demand signals:

Website traffic from specific countries
Social media followers and engagement by geography
Marketplace success (Amazon, TikTok Shop) in certain regions

2. Start culturally similar:

US brands should consider: UK, Canada, Australia, then Western Europe
The further from home, the more complex commerce becomes
Cultural similarity reduces operational complexity

Pro tip: Many brands use marketplace success as a “trail guide” for where to build direct-to-consumer channels. If you’re selling well on Amazon UK, that’s a signal to invest in your own DTC presence there.