Growth of 31% in cross-border ecommerce sales over the 2018 holiday shopping season

There was an impressive increase in the number of online international orders from UK merchants during the holiday shopping period at the end of 2018, with a 31% increase in orders in the lead up to Christmas (23 November - 22 December), compared to the previous month (24 October - 22 November) according to data released today from cross-border ecommerce solutions provider, Global-e.

This is a 37% YoY increase compared to the same period in 2017, when the number of international orders grew by 22.6%. These stats reveal that the international online pre-Christmas shopping peak is growing from year to year.

The rise in sales was most apparent in the fashion category, which saw a 58% increase in cross-border online orders in the month leading up to Christmas 2018 as compared to the same period in the preceding month.

The largest market for cross-border online orders from the UK was the US with 22% of the pre-Christmas orders, followed by Ireland and Australia, both with 9%, while 7% comes from French shoppers. Furthermore, the busy shopping season spread to many world markets and attracted increasing numbers of online shoppers from markets such as South Korea with 4% of all international orders and China with 3%.

The hectic online holiday shopping season appeared to get an even earlier start this year. The rise in sales started during the week before Black Friday, (12-18 Nov) with 13% of all orders from the holiday period placed during that week. Sales continued to increase during the week of Black Friday (19-25 Nov) hitting a peak of 21% of all international orders placed during the pre-Christmas period.

Nir Debbi, Co-Founder and CRO, Global-e, said: “With busy seasonal shopping events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday continuing to spread to many markets worldwide, it’s clear that online shoppers are becoming increasingly savvy about finding the best promotions and discounts. With cross-border ecommerce rising in popularity for many consumers, providing international shoppers with a localised shopping experience as well as tailoring online sales and promotions to global and local shopping peaks are imperative for merchants looking to capitalise on this opportunity.”