In today’s fast-paced digital age, e-commerce continues to break barriers, enabling businesses to reach international customers like never before. For almost a decade, Glopal has been working hard to support international sales growth, via SaaS modules (including, but not limited to, Localization & Marketing and Taxes and Duties), for online retailers by offering innovative solutions.

Cross-border online sales are projected to reach $2.25 trillion by 2026 as consumers worldwide are turning to international retailers for unique products, better pricing and expanded choices.

Expanding e-commerce business globally can be highly rewarding, but it comes with a unique set of challenges. What are some common obstacles these cross-border retailers face?

• Localization issues like translation into local language(s), marketing campaigns, customer service and local payment methods
• Global logistics like managing shipping costs, delivery timelines and returns
• Tax, Customs and compliance in various countries and changing trade policies
• Marketing and brand awareness in new markets, all while trying to build customer trust
• Technology integration and ensuring the e-commerce platform can handle different currencies, languages and tax configurations.
• Returns and managing the reverse logistics process while maintaining brand loyalty

Each of these challenges requires careful planning and the right tools and/or partners in order to simplify the process and optimize the retailer’s chance of success in global markets.

Trade Duty Refund sat down with Cyril Bray, General Counsel at Glopal as well as tax and customs expert, to learn more about how e-commerce companies can plan their growth strategies while mitigating risk.

1. Glopal has been around since 2018, tell us more about what inspired Glopal’s focus on helping businesses scale internationally, and how it stands out in the e-commerce industry.

Glopal was created by Benjamin Cohen and Patrick Smarzynski, two French founders, with a common ambition: “Create a world where anyone can sell to any customer anywhere in the world”. Therefore, Glopal is there to support international cross-border sales by e-commerce merchants by giving them the right tools and services to sell their goods worldwide. Our business model has always been to permit a direct sale of the goods by the Merchant to the end customer (clearly the opposite of the Merchant of record (MoR) model). Most of the blockers argued by the MoR suppliers to promote their business model are outdated and wrong. For example, the tax registration obligation is limited to less than 10 countries worldwide and you can ship DDP (Delivery Duty Paid) to all other countries by using your carrier’s processes without any friction.

2. Tell us about the booming global e-Commerce market: what does the market look like today and where do you see it going in the near future?

As you mentioned, the e-commerce market is constantly growing and the trend we are seeing is that merchants want to bring back or keep their own management of their sales to maximize revenue and ensure good customer satisfaction. Therefore, for merchants selling via their own website, we saw a shift from the old fashion MoR business model to new innovative models (including but not limited to, Seller of Record (SoR) and Importer of Record (IoR)).

In parallel, almost all countries are implementing new regulations on the shoulders of marketplaces or electronic interfaces, in terms of tax collection and/or compliance role, for example in the EU roles such as GPSR, EPR etc.

3. In your experience, what would you say are the most significant obstacles companies face when expanding their e-commerce business cross-border?

The most significant obstacles that our clients are facing to expand internationally are mainly:

• Localization of their website in a foreign country including translation into domestic buyer language, local currency price conversion, etc. With the support of Glopal, we saw many of our clients improving their international sales by more than 30% after implementation of our Localisation & Marketing solution.
• Management of the taxes and duties landed costs in destination country and tariff mitigation: depending on incoterm used (DDP or DAP/DDU), taxes and duties costs will be included or not in the transaction value to be paid by the shopper. A wrong calculation may trigger a loss of margin for the vendor (in case of DDP sale) or an increase of the price to be paid by the buyer at the border to release the goods. In both scenarios, there is a financial impact which must be avoided or mitigated as much as possible. To mitigate the applicable tariff on goods, an appropriate HS code classification and a proper origin determination of the goods are mandatory, to ensure application of the adequate tariff rate and potential exemption linked to free trade agreement. Only a perfect grasp of these issues and constant legal monitoring can ensure the smooth running of the supply chain right through to delivery to the end customer. By using Glopal Taxes and Duties Solution you will rely on experts to manage these topics and therefore be able concentrate on your business activity without stress.

4. What advice would you give to companies when it comes to properly managing customs compliance and duties?

Cross-border sales means exporting your goods to several foreign destination countries and then customs clears your goods at the border. Custom clearance of the goods represents a cost for the buyer and will be part of the customer delivery experience, therefore the merchant must ensure that this part of the supply chain is under control and managed by professionals. From a buyer perspective, they want to know custom duties pre-paid (in case of DDP incoterm) or paid (in case of DAP/ DDU incoterm) for their order, so in practise, getting the right taxes and duties calculation at checkout level is a crucial element for the merchant.

It’s important to remember that customs’ main pillars to clear the goods are: value to be declared; country of origin of the product(s) and nomenclature of the product (HS code). Those 3 pieces of information will allow customs to determine the duty to be paid (if no exemption applies) in the destination country.

Glopal Taxes and Duties solution allows for the classification of your goods with the appropriate HS code, to apply reverse calculation to minimize the custom duties to be paid and to manage the country of origin of your goods and apply, if applicable, potential free trade agreement or specific duty rates. On top, Glopal is also providing paperless integration with the main express carriers, to facilitate the customs clearance.

5. Glopal specializes in several areas of e-commerce - from marketing to localization and logistics - but how do you also work with an ecosystem of partners in international trade and logistics to support clients?

Glopal solutions can solve several pain points of our e-commerce merchants, but not all for sure. Given the complexity of the global trade system, and to ensure best in class service, Glopal has decided to work with experienced partners with relevant experience in their field. And this is why Glopal is more than happy to work with Trade Duty Refund, a dedicated customs broker specialized in customs duties and compliance, for duty drawback solutions in a selected range of countries.

With Glopal’s extensive experience in cross-border e-commerce, we couldn’t help but sneak in one more question related to the current events and the imposed tariffs on over 90 countries issued by the Trump Administration on April 2nd. With a 10% baseline tariff on most countries, and tariffs up to 54% on China with a wave of the de minimis loophole, the cross-border trade situation seems unpredictable at the moment, but the enforcement of this tariff program will certainly impact merchants that want to sell into the world’s largest economy.

Cyril, you have decades of experience in cross-border transactions and e-commerce business. The Trump Administration has shaken up global trade over the past few months with country-specific tariffs and industry-specific tariffs. What are your thoughts on how the U.S. tariff schedule will affect global e-commerce business this year? Do you have any advice for businesses trying to navigate these recent regulations?

The tariff war engaged by the U.S. government against most of the countries was not a real surprise for me as Trump already mentioned that during his election campaign. Now, let’s be realistic, the tax rates on U.S. products imported into the countries listed on their table are in no way justified from a customs and tax point of view. As a result, there is no legal justification for applying the 50% reciprocal tariff.

As far as the expected impact on e-commerce is concerned, the rise in customs duties will lead to a slowdown in transactions to the USA, and will also require adjustments to the supply chain in order to optimize the impact of customs duties as far as possible. However, from my point of view, there is still some uncertainty as to whether this U.S. tariff approach will be maintained in the weeks or months to come, as the White House’s fickleness on this issue leads me to assume that many countries will find a compromise that will result in the withdrawal of this measure.

Are you a cross-border e-commerce retailer or platform looking to maximize your business and marketing operations?

➡️ Contact Trade Duty Refund to learn more about how they can assist in reclaiming duties and improving your cross-border trade operations.