How UK retailers can win international customers in 2025
Samir Kamnani
·June 18, 2025
It’s a tricky time to be expanding your ecommerce business overseas, when international trade policy seems to change day by day, and all global markets are facing rising economic pressures.
But it’s well worth the challenges: Cross-border expansion gives your brand the ability to scale your consumer base far beyond your country’s limited population. In fact, 80% of sales from the UK’s top 100 brands listed on the FTSE100 Index are generated from overseas markets.
To follow in their footsteps, it’s essential to learn how to manage the complexities of cross-border commerce and build a plan for sustainable international growth.
Here are some strategies for achieving success:
Customise your pricing strategy for each region
The impact of tariffs (currently set to 10% for the US market), other duties and fees, and daily fluctuations in the exchange rate can all greatly impact your brand’s profit margins. Make sure that you’re building a healthy buffer in every market you serve, with a dynamic pricing strategy that’s calculated to ensure your margins are being met. Using Shopify’s international ecommerce tools, you can easily customise your currency, language, and pricing; collect pre-paid VAT, duties, and taxes; and ensure you’re in compliance with customs regulations.
Focus your efforts on countries with high-growth potential
Prioritise building your brand in countries with a strong UK trade relationship, a rising middle class, and increasing ecommerce adoption, such as the UAE, India, Australia, and the EU. The UK Department for Business and Trade’s Export Opportunities portal can help you hone in on regions with the best growth potential for your business, based on the product or service that you’re selling.
You can conduct market research to understand the potential customer base for your product in each region, and build the right price point and marketing strategy to appeal to them. Make sure that you’re able to meet any regulatory requirements for marketing and selling your products in each region.
Build partnerships with end-to-end global logistics providers
Rather than focusing on local carriers, it’s important to establish business relationships with global logistics carriers such as DHL Express, FedEx Cross Border, and Royal Mail International Tracked. These providers offer end-to-end services including warehousing, pick/pack, inventory management, shipping, and customs clearance, ensuring that your deliveries can make it from the UK to your overseas customers without a hitch. And by partnering with a platform like Global-e, you can create a seamless local experience for online buyers and sellers anywhere in the world.
Streamline overseas fulfilment with local warehousing solutions
Whether partnering with a multi-location 3PL or working directly with your logistics provider, consider relocating a portion of your inventory into warehouses in the countries where you’re selling your products. By sending over a bulk shipment to be placed into local inventory, you can guarantee that regional customers will have a fast and easy shipping experience when they place an order, rather than waiting for their delivery to be shipped internationally and clear customs. And, in the event of a return, you can ensure that all inventory stays in the country, eliminating the risk of double-paying duties and taxes.
Optimise your returns workflows
As many as 30% of ecommerce sales may end in a return, so planning a robust cross-commerce returns strategy is critical for building a sustainable brand. By using UK returns management software like Loop, you can:
- Set up custom workflows: Create flexible return policies based on criteria including geographic region, product type, and product condition, with different outcomes based on different scenarios. You can automatically determine the best outcome for each transaction based on its profitability: In cases where a product can be resold, it makes sense to ship the item back to your regional warehouse; if it can’t, you might encourage the customer to keep the item or send it to a donation centre.
- Reduce returns fraud: Loop’s Fraud Model algorithm has analysed data from millions of ecommerce returns transactions, and can correctly identify $0.87 of every $1 in confirmed fraud. Each time a transaction shows indicators of a “high risk” return, Loop will be able to block the return from going through, so that you can conduct a manual review and protect your profits.
- Encourage exchanges over refunds: Loop’s streamlined returns portal makes it simple for customers to request a product exchange or store credit, rather than defaulting to a refund. Our straightforward user interface means it’s more likely that customers will opt for another product, helping you retain revenue from the original transaction, generate upsell revenue from higher priced exchanges, and boost your customer loyalty rate.
Cross-border commerce is a huge opportunity, but it can be tricky to get it right without the right technology in place. By bringing together best-in-class carriers, shipping solutions, warehousing/3PL providers, and returns management tools, you’ll be well-equipped to scale your brand globally.
Ready to scale internationally? Book a demo of Loop.
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