Study Looks at Small Business International Expansion

Shipwire has revealed the results of an interesting study on small business online retailer trends in global expansion. The firm found that international orders grew 11% from 2008 to 2009 to reach 20% of total orders. Shipwire analyzed aggregate customer shipping data for a two-year period.

According to Shipwire, 9% of total orders were international, and 20% were international in 2009. These numbers represent shipments to non-US addresses and include international shipping methods for US warehouses and non-US carriers overseas.

The firm says the increase seems due to a need to tap into international markets brought on by the global recession, and new services that are allowing SMBs to compete effectively overseas. 75% of international merchants were in markets outside of their home country versus 13% of US merchants, according to Shipwire.

Results from a smaller statistical sample of top Shipwire merchants revealed that non-U.S. SMB merchants are showing marked international growth as compared with U.S. merchants, with 18% actively exporting products to a warehouse outside of their home country, and 15% of their 2009 total orders shipped from a facility outside of the merchant’s home country. Of the U.S. merchants in this smaller sample, 13% were conducting business in one of Shipwire’s international fulfillment warehouses in Canada or the UK. And of the International merchants, 75% were doing business in the Shipwire U.S. facility and 25% were doing business in one of Shipwire’s overseas fulfillment warehouses.

"It appears that U.S.-based merchants are not tapping into overseas opportunities as readily as are internationally-based customers. However, we expect that this gap will slowly begin to close as U.S. merchants search for growth markets overseas in greater numbers," says Shipwire Founder and CEO Damon Schechter.

Shipwire says 2009 Holiday e-commerce order volume was Up, but With smaller average order amounts. While merchants shipped more products, they sold a lesser amount to each buyer.

"This shows that while merchants did ship 26% more product, they shipped it in more orders; this seems to indicate that there were more online shoppers; but, the average customer bought slightly less product per order in 2009 over 2008," says Schechter. "It appears that there is a growing comfort with making impulse purchases online. This is a trend I would expect to continue with a global recession butting heads with the pricing efficiency and convenience of online and mobile commerce."