Expanding your ecommerce business internationally unlocks tremendous opportunities – but also comes with complex challenges. In part 1 of our blog series, we covered the fundamentals of cross-border ecommerce, outlining the key factors for successful internationalization, its benefits, and how to develop a scalable, long-term strategy. Now, we’re taking a deeper dive: In this post, we’ll explore the most common challenges businesses face when expanding globally – and how Shopware provides the tools to navigate them successfully.
Contents
Challenge 1: Localizing content, language, and currency for global shops
Challenge 2: Managing international payments and tax compliance
Challenge 4: Technical scalability and performance for your ecommerce business
Challenge 6: Expanding global ecommerce through marketplaces
Success Story 2: siku accelerates international B2B and B2C growth with Shopware
Conclusion: Shopware provides the missing pieces for seamless global ecommerce expansion
Challenge 1: Localizing content, language, and currency for global shops
Why localization is key to success
"Think global, act local" – this well-known principle applies perfectly to international ecommerce. Businesses that successfully tailor their approach to specific countries or regions benefit from higher conversion rates, lower cart abandonment rates, and increased brand trust. Studies like "Can’t Read, Won’t Buy" by CSA Research highlight the importance of localization [1]:
72% of consumers are more likely to buy if product information is available in their native language.
56% of customers trust a shop more when it is tailored to their local market.
47% of users abandon their purchase if the shop doesn’t support their language.
Successful international ecommerce starts with visibility in your target market
Localization and search visibility are closely connected. If your online shop isn’t properly translated and optimized for SEO, it risks being overshadowed by local competitors. Search engines favor localized content that provides real value, a fact that SEO experts emphasize time and again [2].
How to effectively localize your global shop
The key to successful internationalization is creating an online presence that feels native to each market. This requires:
Content in the local language – customers trust brands that speak their language, making them more likely to engage and convert.
Pricing in the local currency – displaying prices in the shopper’s currency removes friction and eliminates concerns about exchange rates or hidden costs.
Culturally adapted messaging – localized landing pages and marketing content that reflect cultural nuances build trust and enhance the customer experience.
Shopware delivers powerful localization tools
Expanding internationally comes with challenges, but Shopware’s innovative features make it easy to tailor your ecommerce strategy for different markets.
A standout feature is Multi-Language & Multi-Currency support, enabling merchants to seamlessly adjust language and currency without any coding. German and English are available out of the box, with additional standard languages in development. Plus, the Shopware Language Pack allows for over 25 additional languages, making global expansion effortless.
AI-powered localization takes things even further. Shopware’s AI Copilot automatically translates customer reviews into the shopper’s language, providing authentic insights and boosting trust across international markets. It also helps generate and translate content for Shopware Shopping Experiences, ensuring that localized messaging is consistent and effective.
With Shopware Shopping Experiences, merchants can create custom, region-specific landing pages and product overviews using an intuitive page builder. Beyond just language and currency, visuals, tone, and messaging can be adapted to reflect cultural nuances – turning a generic storefront into a fully localized shopping experience that resonates with each market.
Challenge 2: Managing international payments and tax compliance
Navigating the complexity of local payment methods
Expanding into global ecommerce means navigating a web of local tax regulations and diverse payment preferences. Every market has its own rules and consumer habits – while credit cards might dominate in one country, others favor local payment methods like SEPA direct debit or invoice payments. Additionally, e-wallets such as PayPal and Apple Pay are essential in many regions. Failing to offer the right localized payment options can lead to high cart abandonment rates.
Research from the Baymard Institute highlights this challenge. Nearly 10% of shoppers abandon their purchase if their preferred payment method isn’t available. And 17% of potential buyers drop out if the checkout process is too lengthy or complex [3].
Tax complexity: a major challenge in international expansion
Adhering to country-specific tax and customs regulations is one of the biggest challenges for merchants expanding globally. Each country has its own tax laws, and regions like the European Union impose particularly strict compliance requirements. Inaccurate tax calculations can result in costly back payments, fines, or even legal consequences.
How to overcome payment and tax challenges
A key strategy for simplifying international ecommerce is centralized management of country-specific payment and tax requirements. To ensure smooth operations and compliance, focus on:
Adapting to regional tax and customs regulations – automated tax calculation within your ecommerce system ensures that the correct tax rates and duties are applied in each market, minimizing manual effort and reducing compliance risks.
Seamlessly integrating local payment methods – customers expect to pay using their preferred payment option without friction. Offering region-specific payment methods helps prevent checkout abandonment and boosts conversions.
Streamlining data management – an efficient import/export system ensures that product details, pricing, and tax rules are centrally managed and can be quickly adapted when expanding into new markets.
Simplified tax management and 30+ payment providers with Shopware
Shopware provides a comprehensive toolkit for international tax compliance and seamless integration with local payment providers, making global ecommerce expansion easier than ever.
With Shopware’s tax management feature, merchants can set tax rates and assign them to specific countries, ensuring that orders automatically reflect the correct tax rates without manual adjustments. For complex tax regulations, such as those in the United States, Shopware’s tax provider feature enables dynamic adaptation to regional tax and customs rules. This minimizes calculation errors and ensures compliance with local regulations, reducing administrative overhead and the risk of penalties.
Shopware is also one of the world’s leading ecommerce platforms in payment flexibility, supporting over 30 payment providers and covering the most relevant global payment methods. Customers worldwide can shop in their preferred currency and pay using familiar methods, reducing checkout friction. Supported payment options include credit cards, SEPA direct debit (EU markets), invoice payments, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Amazon Pay, and more. These options are seamlessly integrated via leading payment providers such as Stripe, Mollie, and Adyen, ensuring smooth transactions across all markets.
In addition, Shopware’s Import/Export functionality simplifies global product data management. Instead of manually configuring product details, pricing, and tax rules for each new market, merchants can easily export and apply them to additional regions. The system also allows businesses expanding into new markets to import existing product, customer, or order data, eliminating the need to start from scratch. The Import/Export tool also facilitates data sharing with tax advisors, ERP, and CRM systems, keeping all information synchronized and up to date – even as businesses scale internationally.
Challenge 3: International logistics and shipping
Inefficient logistics processes drive up operating costs
As businesses expand globally, logistics and shipping can quickly become a bottleneck. International orders often come with longer delivery times and higher shipping costs, both of which can negatively impact customer satisfaction and retention. A lack of standardized logistics solutions across multiple markets results in inconsistent shipping conditions, varied delivery processes, and complex customs handling. This not only increases operational costs and administrative workload but also leads to frustration among customers.
Research from the E-Commerce Delivery Compass highlights the importance of a seamless shipping experience: 60% of online shoppers consider flexible delivery options a key factor in their purchasing decisions, while another 60% want to choose their preferred shipping method at checkout [4]. In international ecommerce, providing the right shipping options and logistics infrastructure is essential to maintaining high conversion rates and customer trust.
How to establish seamless logistics processes
To overcome the challenges of international logistics and shipping, implement these key strategies:
Streamline shipping operations – collaborate with international carriers and fulfillment providers to ensure smooth cross-border logistics. Prioritize fast and hassle-free technical integration for a seamless shipping experience.
Offer flexible delivery options – adjust shipping rates and delivery times to align with local market conditions and customer expectations, making your service more competitive.
Optimize warehouse management – leverage a multi-warehouse infrastructure to strategically distribute inventory, reduce delivery times, and improve overall shipping efficiency.
Shopware integrates the world's leading logistics and fulfillment providers
Designed for global ecommerce expansion, Shopware provides a comprehensive logistics ecosystem, offering everything from shipping integrations and custom shipping rates to advanced multi-warehouse solutions.
Currently, Shopware supports logistics and shipping solutions from over 15 integration partners, including Sendcloud, Europe’s leading shipping tool for online shops, which connects to 100+ global carriers, such as DHL, UPS, GLS, FedEx, DPD, and Spring. Additionally, fulfillment and dropshipping services can be seamlessly integrated via ShipStation, Droppery, and Loqate, while PAQATO enhances the international after-sales experience.
With this extensive network of shipping and fulfillment providers, merchants can set custom shipping rates and delivery times for different markets. Whether offering standard or express shipping, Shopware enables businesses to tailor logistics strategies to meet customer expectations worldwide.
For even greater flexibility, Shopware’s Multi Inventory feature – available from the Beyond Plan – allows merchants to create and manage multiple warehouse locations within a centralized admin interface. This feature streamlines order distribution, optimizes supply chains, and ensures efficient warehouse management across international markets.
Challenge 4: Technical scalability and performance for your ecommerce business
Building a future-proof infrastructure for sustainable growth
Successful global ecommerce expansion relies on a scalable and high-performance platform. As transaction volumes increase, market-specific complexities grow, and multiple country versions of a shop need to be managed, many legacy systems quickly reach their limits. Rigid, monolithic architectures make expansion costly, complex, and inflexible, ultimately stifling growth. Industry research highlights the risks: In 2023, U.S. businesses spent an average of nearly $3 million maintaining outdated legacy systems [5]. Additionally, more than half of companies engaged in digital transformation and international expansion cite inflexible technology as one of the biggest barriers to scaling globally. [6]
How to scale your ecommerce ecosystem for international growth
Invest in scalable, future-ready technology – choose an ecommerce platform, ERP, and CRM that are built for growth and flexibility from the start. A scalable foundation ensures your business can expand without technological roadblocks.
Embrace cloud-based infrastructure – hosting in the cloud allows your ecommerce platform to adapt dynamically to international market demands, ensuring seamless performance even during traffic spikes from seasonal events or global sales campaigns.
Leverage composable commerce for maximum flexibility – success in international markets requires rapid adaptation to local demands. By decoupling the frontend from the backend, Composable Commerce gives you the agility to customize your shop for each market’s unique requirements without limitations.
Optimize multi-market sales channels – managing separate sales channels for different regions ensures that local pricing, compliance, and customer preferences are met efficiently. This approach not only enhances system performance but also provides better control over global operations.
Cutting-edge scalability and performance management with shopware
Shopware delivers a future-ready, flexible ecommerce platform designed to handle the complexities of international expansion with ease.
Built on an API-first Architecture and leveraging Headless Commerce, Shopware enables a clear separation between frontend and backend, allowing seamless integration with third-party services. This ensures that your shop remains high-performing and stable, even under heavy traffic loads and across multiple international markets.
With Shopware Composable Frontends, you can create custom storefronts for different countries, ensuring a localized and engaging user experience tailored to each market. This enhances customer satisfaction and strengthens your brand’s global presence.
Shopware also simplifies multi-market management by allowing businesses to set up independent Sales Channels for different regions. This provides greater control, scalability, and localization options. If you expand into brick-and-mortar retail in a new country for example, you can easily launch a dedicated sales channel with just a few clicks, ensuring a seamless, high-performance shopping experience across all touchpoints.
Challenge 5: Scaling B2B ecommerce globally
Global B2B markets require tailored solutions
Expanding B2B ecommerce internationally requires more than a standard ecommerce platform. Businesses must navigate region-specific pricing structures, often customized not only by country but also by customer group. Additionally, sales structures vary across markets, demanding granular role management, complex order processing, budget controls, and approval workflows.
Successfully localizing and scaling a global B2B shop goes beyond adapting tax settings, language, or frontend design. Each market operates with unique business practices and negotiation styles, which must be integrated into the buyer experience. Managing these complexities can be resource-intensive, making a flexible, scalable ecommerce solution essential for long-term success.
How to successfully get your international B2B business going
To succeed in international B2B markets, your processes must be adaptable to the unique demands of different countries and customer groups. Here’s how to achieve that:
Develop tailored pricing strategies – conduct a detailed analysis of your B2B target markets, factoring in economic conditions and regional dynamics. Use this data to segment customer groups strategically and implement custom pricing models that align with local business practices.
Align with international sales structures – mirror country-specific B2B sales organizations within your ecommerce system, defining clear roles, responsibilities, and access rights to streamline workflows and ensure operational efficiency.
Streamline quote management – personalized pricing and negotiations are at the heart of B2B commerce. Your ecommerce platform should integrate quote creation, presentation, and approval workflows, making it a seamless part of your sales process.
Shopware delivers powerful, modular B2B features tailored to your business
Shopware is a leading global provider of B2B ecommerce solutions, recognized by renowned research firms such as Forrester, which featured Shopware in its latest Forrester Wave™ report. Additionally, Paradigm B2B awarded Shopware 11 medals, highlighting strengths in Vision & Strategy, Total Cost of Ownership, and Ability to Execute.
With Shopware B2B Components, businesses can build a flexible, scalable international B2B operation tailored to their needs. One of the key features is customer-specific pricing rules, allowing businesses to create market- and customer-segment-specific pricing strategies for optimized sales performance.
Modules like “B2B Employee Management” and “B2B Order Approvals” help structure complex international sales operations, ensuring seamless role management, permissions, and process control across multiple regions.
The “B2B Quote Management” module provides a powerful, integrated quoting system, allowing businesses to manage inquiries, generate custom offers, negotiate deals, and finalize transactions – all within the Shopware platform.
Challenge 6: Expanding global ecommerce through marketplaces
Unlocking new markets while managing complexity
Expanding through global marketplaces offers access to millions of potential customers and provides a low-barrier entry into new and unfamiliar markets. However, each marketplace comes with unique requirements for product data formats, pricing strategies, and delivery expectations. Without the right infrastructure, managing multiple marketplaces can quickly become time-consuming and costly, especially if your ecommerce platform isn’t optimized for multichannel operations.
How to effectively manage global marketplaces and sales channels
To maximize your success in international marketplaces, follow these key steps:
Develop a strategic multichannel approach – while global marketplaces offer vast reach, they don’t automatically connect you with your ideal audience. A strong expansion strategy should encompass all relevant sales channels in each target market, including marketplaces, point of sale (POS), social media, and your own ecommerce shop.
Streamline management with a centralized platform – leverage an ecommerce solution that allows you to control and oversee all sales channels from one centralized system. This minimizes administrative workload, reduces errors, and improves efficiency.
Optimize for platform-specific requirements – ensure that product data, attributes, and descriptions meet each marketplace’s specific guidelines. Properly formatted listings improve search rankings, enhance discoverability through filters, and increase visibility.
Shopware offers unlimited sales opportunities and a seamless multichannel solution
With Shopware, you can expand your reach across unlimited Sales Channels – without restrictions. Whether you're selling on marketplaces, social commerce platforms, your online shop, or physical retail locations, Shopware allows you to connect with your audience wherever they prefer to shop.
To ensure effortless selling on major national and international marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, Zalando, Walmart, Etsy, and more, we developed Shopware Multichannel Connect. This powerful app integrates with 950+ marketplaces, offering key advantages:
Manage product listings, inventory, and pricing across all channels from one central system
Sync stock levels, content, and prices in real time with connected marketplaces
Simplify order processing with automated updates directly within your Shopware environment
Manage fulfillment services like Amazon FBA with ease
Success Story 1: PhiAcademy operates 5 language-specific shops and sells to 160 countries with Shopware
PhiAcademy GmbH, a leading Austrian beauty brand, has established itself as a global frontrunner in B2B ecommerce for beauty products. With a portfolio of 800+ premium items, the company serves customers in over 160 countries.
In just four months, PhiAcademy migrated from Magento 2 to Shopware, gaining greater flexibility in delivering localized content for international markets. Shopware 6 enabled the brand to efficiently handle its expanding global customer base, offering its shop in five languages and supporting six different currencies, with automated daily exchange rate updates for seamless order conversions.
Shopware’s advanced internationalization features ensure smooth content localization, adaptable payment processing, and streamlined logistics, tailored to each market’s unique demands. Beyond its multilingual shops, PhiAcademy has expanded into social commerce, seamlessly integrating Facebook and Instagram Shopping via Shopware. Discover more about this success story here.
Success Story 2: siku accelerates international B2B and B2C growth with Shopware
siku GmbH, a renowned European toy manufacturer, sells its products in over 60 countries and is recognized as a leader in the industry. To support its global expansion and optimize both B2B and B2C commerce, siku migrated to Shopware 6 as part of its international growth strategy.
With Shopware’s powerful ecommerce platform, siku now operates its online shop and dealer portal in five languages, using Shopware Shopping Experiences to deliver tailored content to diverse global markets.
Since siku’s production facilities span Germany, Poland, and China, the company required a solution that could handle complex international warehousing and logistics. By transitioning to Shopware 6, siku has successfully enhanced the customer experience, seamlessly integrated website content with ecommerce operations, and achieved substantial revenue growth in both national and international markets. Discover the full success story here.
Conclusion: Shopware provides the missing pieces for seamless global ecommerce expansion
Scaling an ecommerce business internationally comes with a unique set of challenges – from language and currency localization to regional payment processing, tax compliance, technical scalability, and multichannel distribution across global markets.
A successful expansion also requires alignment across multiple teams and stakeholders within your organization. Only by addressing these challenges holistically can a business achieve sustainable global growth.
Shopware provides a powerful, scalable solution tailored for both B2C and B2B commerce, equipping businesses with the right tools to simplify international expansion. Experience firsthand how Shopware can accelerate your international growth!
[1] https://csa-research.com/Featured-Content/For-Global-Enterprises/Global-Growth/CRWB-Series/CRWB-B2C [2] https://backlinko.com/google-ranking-factors [3] https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate [4] https://www.sendcloud.de/whitepaper/e-commerce-lieferkompass-2021/ [5] https://www.ciodive.com/news/legacy-technology-technical-debt-costs-enterprise-data-AI/721885/ [6] https://vorecol.com/blogs/blog-overcoming-challenges-of-legacy-systems-in-digital-transformation-7592
