World-renowned fashion brand Never Fully Dressed (NFD) has been selling online for several years, with a high demand from international customers who discovered the brand through its strong social media presence, celebrity following and unique style.
However, the brand was unable to offer its international customers the high-level shopping experience that its loyal UK customers enjoyed. NFD offered browsing prices in GBP, USD and EUR, however payments were all processed in GBP. This meant that conversion rates were only an estimate and shoppers were often charged international transaction fees by their credit card company.
The brand’s international shipping offering was expensive, with the prices varying according to the products ordered, meaning shipping prices were not displayed in advance. These high and unpredictable shipping costs added at the checkout significantly impaired the brand’s checkout conversion rates.
NFD was also unable to provide its international customers with a calculation or prepayment option of taxes and duties, delaying delivery times due to processing at customs and exposing shoppers to unexpected fees upon delivery. This greatly impeded the international shopping experience, reducing returning customer figures and creating a high level of customer service inquiries.
The contemporary fashionwear brand was looking for a cost-effective, advanced ecommerce solution that would allow it to increase its D2C sales and offer its international customers a best-in-class, seamlessly localised shopping experience from browsing through to delivery
The solution
NFD understood that the challenges it faced with its international ecommerce would be most efficiently and effectively handled by cross-border ecommerce experts. The brand therefore chose to partner with Global-e, the leading provider of end-to-end cross-border ecommerce solutions, in order to expand NFD globally by providing customers in over 200 destinations across the world with a seamless and best-in- class localised shopping experience, including:
- Localised marketing messaging – Customised per market, supported in 25+ languages.
- Local pricing per market, displayed in local currency – Product pricing is set per market according to NFD’s business strategy and local market best-practices. Prices are rounded according to local market conventions. 100+ currencies are supported.
- Localised checkout – Seamless one-step checkout page supported in 25+ languages.
- Guaranteed landed cost – Providing a final tax and duty calculation with options for prepayment at checkout or presenting customers with prices inclusive of taxes and duties, informing them that no additional costs will be added to their purchase; according to market best-practice.
- A wide variety of local and alternative payment options – Presenting the most commonly used methods in each market, allowing shoppers to pay with their preferred payment methods. More than 150 methods are supported including Buy Now Pay Later, mobile payments and local payment methods.
- Free international shipping and returns on all orders – Including free or competitively priced express shipping option.
Through a dedicated Success Manager, Global-e works closely with NFD to provide ongoing recommendations based on big-data analysis specific to the brand’s vertical and market best-practices.
This allows NFD to further grow its cross-border ecommerce business by continually improving its international offering, such as extending its free shipping offering and introducing free returns in order to optimise the customer experience and enhance conversion rates and order numbers.
The brand is also able to adjust its pricing strategy per market and quickly adapt to changes in local markets regulations, preserving a seamless customer experience.
The results
Within ten months of partnering with Global-e, NFD saw impressive growth in its international business. Total international order numbers grew by 109% YoY, with even more impressive results in the brand’s key international markets.
In the USA, one of the brand’s top international markets, NFD can now accept payments in USD and offer shoppers a variety of payment options including Apple Pay, Amazon Pay and Klarna, as well as free express shipping and returns. The number of orders in this market rose by 139% YoY, with 57% of shoppers opting to pay with an alternative payment method rather than with a card.
In Australia, order numbers increased by 553% YoY, with 100% of the brand’s online shoppers from the region choosing to checkout in Australian Dollars and 51% choosing to pay for their orders with local and alternative payment methods including Apple Pay, Amazon Pay and Slice It.
In the UAE, an additional key international market for the brand, number of orders grew by 91% YoY. Additionally, The brand has expanded its business in additional Gulf markets such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, which have become key markets, as well as Qatar which is a totally new customer base for the brand.
With Global-e’s support, NFD was successful in adapting its post-Brexit proposition for markets within the European Union, continuing to grow its international business across the EU despite the additional challenges. Based on best-practice recommendations, the brand integrated all taxes and duties within product prices so that European shoppers would continue to enjoy a seamless shopping experience with no surprise tax, duty and handling charges upon delivery.
Additionally, Global-e’s multi-carrier approach enabled NFD to work with carriers to Europe that could support customs clearance, avoiding delays and ensuring European deliveries arrived to customers without outstanding charges.
In Germany order numbers grew by 164% YoY, with 100% of online shoppers choosing to pay in Euro and over 89% now opting to pay with global and local alternative payment options including Sofortuberweisung and Klarna. NFD also saw impressive growth in Spain, with a 243% YoY increase in order numbers.
The brand has been able to significantly drive sales in additional global markets that have since become keyinternational markets. In Sweden, for example, order numbers grew by 338% YoY. 99% of the brand’s online shoppers in this market now choose to pay in Swedish Krona and 76% chose alternative payment methodsincluding Pay Later, PayPal and Slice It.
Lucy Aylen, Founder & CEO, Never Fully Dressed, says: “Since partnering with Global-e we have seen fantastic growth within such a short period of time. The continuous guidance and support from the Global-e team enables us to seamlessly adjust and improve our proposition to maintain a best-in-class shopping experience and high conversion rates. Extending free shipping across all markets based on their recommendation has been hugely successful in enabling us to increase international sales.”
