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~ ESW ~

Can you tell us something about the importance of well, by enabling new markets and omnichannel strategies,”
selling cross-border within your company? And how Giuseppe explains.
has selling cross-border helped your company grow?
“Paul & Shark has always been a global company: we sell Nowadays, there are a lot of different trends in
most of our products abroad and in almost every corner of the e-commerce and cross-border selling, such as
world. This is the first time we do cross-border in a direct- sustainability and transparency. What trends do you
to-consumer digital environment at scale, though. In our think will take the spotlight in the upcoming year(s)?
first year of operation, we delivered more than 13.000 orders “If I have to pick a leading trend in the upcoming years, that
through e-commerce, and we are going to grow that number will be sustainability. I believe that cross-border trade—done
to more than 19.000 this year, a 50% increase. We plan to right and in conjunction with appropriate omnichannel
deliver around 25.000 orders worldwide in 2022 and extend strategies—will be a tenet into reducing the number of goods
operations to global e-tailers in 2023 while still maintaining being produced and keeping lean, relevant inventories both in
fulfilment at a single warehouse a few kilometres from our stores and warehouses.”
headquarters in Varese. The roadmap is still being built.”
Why do you think these trends will take the spotlight?
What are some of the biggest challenges or pitfalls “Let’s be honest. Humanity is facing the hardest challenge
when it comes to selling cross-border? ever in terms of its own ecological footprint and needs to
“Selling cross-border is a difficult endeavour: one has to be find a solution. Still, certain human needs are inherently
aware of local taxation, languages, duties, and ever-shifting ineliminable, and clothing—possibly fashionable and
regulations. Such difficulties may constrain brands to engage sustainable ones—don’t make an exception. Sustainability
in cross-border trade just with the most significant markets in won’t just be a feature our customers require, but rather a
terms of revenue. However, there is a lot of value to be created mandate dictated by the need of our own survival.”
in the long tail, especially if the brand is well known abroad,”
says Giuseppe. Do you have any particular tips for companies that
want to start selling online and/or cross-border?
Giuseppe continues: “Given the cross-border intricacies, the “For a company starting to look into cross-border trade, and
only way to tap into the long tail is to find a business partner especially online, I would suggest gathering a clear idea of the
who handles the complexity on your behalf. This is especially traffic your online presence generates for each desired country.
true when fulfilling direct-to-consumer orders, which needs With this information at hand, the company could prioritise
to operate at the tune of tens of thousands of transactions per high-potential countries for immediate go-live while building
year and never misses a beat.” the margins and the traffic volumes to tap into the long tail of
smaller countries at a later time,” Giuseppe explains further.
What would you consider to be a secret weapon when
it comes to successfully selling cross-border? “For example, our top ten countries by revenue generate
“I believe there are no such things as secret weapons; what the same turnover as the remaining one hundred: had we
customers want is rather clear albeit difficult to achieve: constrained our operations to the top ten countries by
frictionless checkout experience, Delivery-Duty-Paid revenue, our reach would have been decimated! I strongly
fulfilment everywhere possible (yes, even in notoriously tricky suggest leveraging the long tail.”
countries like Russia and China), the shortest order to bell
timing possible, seamless returns or exchanges, etc.” You have been selected as one of the winners
of the Cross-Border Magazine Awards of 2021
“A truly global brand cannot forego any of such wants, and for outstanding performance in Localisation &
still reaching excellence in each of them is hard; maintaining Payments. Can you tell us how ESW has helped you
the level of service while at scale is even harder. Again, to accomplish this?
succeeding entails dealing with a partner who can broker “We owe a lot to ESW in terms of e-commerce enablement;
complexity on your behalf.” without them, we would not have had the rapid deployment
of tens of countries, the seamless checkout localisation, the
Can you tell us something about the importance of e- smooth handling of tens of thousands of orders destined for
commerce within your company? Did you start selling a myriad of different destinations, the fraud management,
online from the very beginning? and all the necessary features and integrations that made our
“While still in its infancy, e-commerce proved itself a tenet project successful, let alone possible. We needed a partner
of our digital reach strategy. We went live in October 2019, that could handle such complexity on our behalf and found it
just before the pandemic, and without even knowing that in in ESW. We will also need the same kind of involvement in
a few months’ time, the platform would be critical in order the upcoming years when we’ll tackle omnichannel logic and
to connect with our global customer base during lockdowns. e-tailers integrations,” Giuseppe concludes. ••
E-commerce will be a key component of our future growth as

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