In 2023, it is estimated that online global retail sales will reach a staggering $5.6 trillion. As a 21st-century business owner who is highly motivated to succeed now and in the future, it is in your best interest to learn about the hottest trends in cross-border ecommerce so that you can tap into their power along with your competitors.

Major marketplaces continue to prevail.

During the pandemic, locked-down consumers discovered the benefits of searching for products and buying them on the online behemoth Amazon. Chinese buyers patronized sites like Tmall, Taobao, and JD.com in unprecedented volumes when conducting overseas credit card processing.

As an ecommerce merchant yourself, you may be tempted to think that you are powerless against the heft of these sites. However, you can actually harness their strengths by using them to sell your own products. Combine a presence there and the added brand awareness and customer feedback these sites provide with the benefits of your own custom-built ecommerce store to get the best of both worlds. When you also integrate the right payment processing for international businesses into your model, you can be certain that you will provide your foreign customers with secure, streamlined purchasing options.

Don’t neglect the specialized advantages you can only get from your own store and data collection capabilities. When visitors contribute to your social media pages or sign up for your blog or email newsletter, they become vital members of your own small community. This personal touch is something those big players are hard put to replicate.

Personalization rules.

As we said above, small businesses like yours can do “the human touch” much better than their outsized rivals. It is the customer data you collect that can help you to furnish that all-important customized buying experience and one-on-one rapport that shoppers are demanding.

A Forbes insights report shows that approximately 77% of executives cited a positive impact on sales that they believed to be directly related to personalization. E-retailers reported that their sales numbers rose by 20% as a result of tailoring each customer’s shopping experience.

Make this trend work for you by launching and maintaining a customer database packed with details about contact addresses, shopping behaviors and preferences. Then harness AI and analytics reports to send personalized reminders and product suggestions to your loyal buyers.

Streamlined online buying.

COVID changed the way people shopped for goods and services. Those who began to rely on the internet out of necessity in 2020 became accustomed to the convenience and continue to prefer it to this day. One study suggests that over 60% of the people surveyed plan to remain loyal to the online brands they learned about during the pandemic. Additionally, these consumers have come to demand that their electronic buying experience be as fast and secure as possible, preferably with free shipping.

In your online store, do everything you can to make checkout smooth and secure. Features like buy-now-pay-later and one-tap payments combined with omnichannel solutions can boost your sales. If you engage in overseas credit card processing, provide consumers with currency conversion and content in their native language.

Social media marketing reigns supreme.

Sites like YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram offer endless opportunities for people to chat, share their opinions, learn or enhance a skill, and even shop for goods and services. This trend appears to only be increasing in its intensity as the years pass. Social media giant Meta, formerly Facebook, has launched a new Shops feature to allow for a seamless shopping experience for its customers. Similarly, TikTok has recently partnered with ecommerce titan Shopify, also initiating TikTok Shops as a vehicle for direct product selection right on the platform. A Statista report indicates that at least 30% of shoppers are now making their purchases via social media sites.

As a motivated business owner, you need to participate in the social media product display and advertising trend. Get your creative juices flowing by making content-rich, engaging short video ads that you can post on sites like Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube. Although your end goal is to make a sale, part of your social media mission is to have conversations, furnish people with fun and informative content, and, in general, create a brand and a home where customers feel like they belong and are part of your team and your message.

Stand up for sustainability.

With every passing year, consumers and the businesses that serve them are demonstrating an increasing commitment to the welfare of the environment and the people who live on our planet. This goes far beyond merely paying lip service to policies and practices; modern businesses are demonstrating their commitment to ethics and sustainability by changing the way their products are made and shipped and supporting carbon-neutral protocols whenever possible.

To show your community that your company is in support of these environment- and human-friendly ways, your first step should involve performing a sustainability audit of your business asking the following questions.

• Are your supply chains ethical and sustainable from origin to endpoint?
• Are products manufactured in an eco-friendly way?
• Are your shipping and returns procedures as eco-friendly as possible? If not, what can you do to improve them?

Businesses are harnessing the power of AI virtual assistants.

Over a million users downloaded the ChatGPT during its first week of availability. It didn’t take long for consumers and business owners alike to recognize the potential of artificial intelligence to make the shopping experience more seamless and efficient.

There is no doubt that the coronavirus pandemic and the economic turmoil it caused have had profound effects on the ways businesses operate and consumers shop. Many of these ramifications show no signs of abating or reverting to where they were before the pandemic. Consequently, it is time for you as a business owner to pay attention to these trends, incorporating change into your business model. When you embrace innovation and remain nimble and flexible, you can transform even the most devastating situations to your long-term advantage.