Your next customer may be hiding in plain sight. Not my first time saying this. I wrote the White Paper in 2024. Cross-border trade is hard. So is finding another customer in a saturated market. What say you Andy Mulcahy? So is growing in a shrinking one. We seem remarkably willing to accept those difficulties while treating international selling as a bridge too far.
A little Monday insight after reading ECDB's report on cross-border ecommerce in Europe.
There is a useful distinction in the numbers: a retailer's nationality and the location of the transaction are different things. Local storefronts and local fulfilment can put sales into the domestic column. Read the definition before making the argument. I did, but after my first take.
But the bigger question for UK retailers is this: where will your next customers come from?
Serve the customers you already have. Make the existing business work better. Then build a serious plan for international selling and marketplaces.
Your customers may be hiding in plain sight. If you're not there, you won't be discovered.
As you plan for 2027, think beyond 2027. Do long term things with long term people. More cowbell they said, sorry, more video. Here you go.