It’s back-to-school season in many countries around the world. This is the time when teachers, students and parents prepare for a new year of learning -- and all the gear that goes with it. In the U.S., brands and retailers are coming out of the slower summer season and in the past have anticipated a boost in sales that is second [...]
Cross border e-commerce merchants in the luxury category can win new customers and grow their revenue streams in China, but before diving into this complex market, there are some interesting new trends they should know about. The luxury retail category has been booming in China for many years, but that didn’t always translate to cross-border e-commerce success in this category. Not [...]
Consumers who are willing to go through the effort and expense of leaving their home country and traveling abroad to make a purchase may sound extreme, but this is a real phenomenon. “Daigou” is Chinese for “on behalf of” and describes a trend in which Chinese consumers travel to another country specifically to shop for hard-to-get or expensive items. This is [...]
At the end of May, smaller retailers and wholesale merchants that had long enjoyed a lucrative, consistent supplier relationship with Amazon experienced a moment of panic when reports circulated that the retail giant was halting all future wholesale orders from small vendors. As reported by Bloomberg, the move was an effort by Amazon to focus more on bigger suppliers to compete [...]
The 2019 Internet Trends report was released to the public at the end of June, offering industry insights, trends and predictions that undoubtedly impact international e-commerce businesses. For those unfamiliar with this highly-anticipated report, Bond Capital founder and former Kleiner Perkins general partner Mary Meeker has been releasing her take on where the internet is heading for almost 25 years. Her [...]
Fresh from the news that our co-founders were named “Entrepreneurs of the Year” in our home state of New Jersey, Flow’s international e-commerce experts headed to The Lead Innovation Summit in Brooklyn, NY on July 9-10. The Lead Innovation Summit is an event where the fashion and retail innovation communities get together to talk about what comes next for the industry. [...]
Today’s online shoppers are looking to purchase goods from outside of their country’s borders more and more. One in five online payments is now a cross-border transaction. This is great news for e-commerce merchants who are expanding into new global markets. But before brands and retailers dive into international market expansion, there are some important details to consider. At the top [...]
Father’s Day is a newer tradition than Mother’s Day in most countries. In the U.S., it became an official, nationwide holiday in 1972, 58 years after Mother’s Day. Dads still don’t receive quite as much love as moms when it comes to gift giving: in the U.S. consumers have typically spent less for Father’s Day than Mother’s Day. (Consumers were expected [...]
In the U.S., the summer season officially kicks off Memorial Day Weekend. Americans take their long-awaited summer vacations and their shopping habits typically slow down. Some retailers report as much as a 30% drop in sales during the summer months. Optimistic retailers may view June, July and early August as a good time to prepare for the impending frenzy of back-to-school [...]
The 2018 holiday season was one of the best in recent years, exceeding expectations by the National Retail Federation (NRF), who predicted a U.S. sales growth rate of between 4.3% and 4.9%. The reality was higher. Total spending between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday in the U.S. was up 5.4% at $998.32 billion. E-commerce sales during the five-day period from Thanksgiving [...]
