Cross-border e-commerce – enormous potential and even greater challenges Cross-border sales have ceased to be the domain of giants. Global revenues from this e-commerce segment are predicted to exceed $1.2 trillion in 2025. Currently, as many as 36% of all online purchases in Europe are international shipments. Consumers actively search for offers beyond their local market, and for Polish entrepreneurs this is becoming a key pillar of strategy, already accounting for 18-20% of total turnover. However, behind these numbers lies a complex reality. Entrepreneurs must face not only language barriers, but also complicated customs issues, differences in tax regulations and, most importantly, customer expectations who demand the same, or even higher, level of service they experience daily in their own countries. Why do foreign customers abandon their cart? Anatomy of distrust The high abandoned cart rate, reaching approximately 70% globally, is in cross-border sales not so much a statistic as a story of lost trust. Analysis of this phenomenon shows that the reasons rarely lie in product quality. It’s the purchasing process that builds a wall the customer doesn’t want to or can’t overcome. The main culprit turns out to be unexpected and high delivery costs; it’s for this reason that as many as 47% of online shoppers abandon their purchase. This is a psychological “price shock” that makes the customer feel deceived, and an attractive offer suddenly loses its appeal. Even if the customer accepts the cost, the next barrier becomes a long and unpredictable order fulfillment time. A promise like “delivery in 7-21 days” is in today’s times a signal of lack of professionalism. The customer doesn’t want to live in uncertainty. The whole is completed by lack of transparency – inability to track the shipment in real time and complicated or expensive return policy. These elements create a barrier of distrust that ultimately leads to cart abandonment in favor of a more reliable, local supplier. Payment localization as key to trust and conversion Trust in e-commerce is built by eliminating uncertainty, and nothing does this better than offering customers payment methods that are natural and safe for them. As research shows, 56 percent of customers abandon an online purchase due to the lack of their preferred payment method. Localization in this area is much more than converting price to local currency. It’s about understanding cultural payment habits. For example, in Germany, invoice with deferred payment term (so-called “Kauf auf Rechnung”) enjoys huge popularity, which stems from the culture of “try before you buy.” Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, iDEAL, a direct bank transfer system, is an absolute standard. Cash on Delivery plays a particularly important role in many Central and Southern European countries. In regions with lower trust in online payments, this is for many customers the only acceptable form of payment. How can small businesses offer local payment methods? Integrating all these options individually is difficult, time-consuming and costly for a small business. That’s why partnership with technology platforms becomes crucial. Solutions like Alsendo International allow integration of the store with a network of local carriers who can easily handle cash on delivery payment in local currency. Thanks to cooperation with local suppliers, packages arrive faster, and using local infrastructure reduces costs. The system enables real-time shipment tracking and sending notifications in the local language, which increases customer trust. Deliveries can reach both directly to the door and to pickup points or parcel lockers, which gives customers convenience and minimizes failed delivery attempts. Predictable delivery as a decisive purchase factor Even the most convenient payments won’t save a sale if logistics fail. Consumers clearly communicate their expectations: as many as 88% of them say that free delivery is the strongest factor motivating them to shop. Speed is also important – the psychology of waiting for a shipment shows that delivery within 12 hours motivates 83% of respondents to shop more frequently. Predictability, however, means something more than just speed. It’s providing the customer with a sense of control and constant communication. This includes dynamic delivery date estimation already at the cart stage, offering a choice of different options such as courier, pickup point or parcel lockers, as well as proactive sending of email or SMS notifications at key stages of the package’s journey. Synergy and marketing: how to communicate trust from the first click? Customer experience doesn’t begin in the cart. An effective cross-border strategy consists of showcasing your logistics and payment advantages as key sales arguments from the very beginning. Instead of waiting until the last moment, logos of key payment and courier partners should be visible already on the homepage and in the footer. On product pages, it’s worth placing information like “Fast delivery to Germany in 48h via DHL.” What’s more, marketing campaigns should be tailored to specific markets. A Facebook ad targeting the Dutch should mention iDEAL payment. Good practice is also creating dedicated subpages for key markets (e.g., yourstore.com/de), where all delivery, payment and return options are explained in a simple way. How to start in practice? Rely on technology connecting business with logistics Instead of building complicated processes from scratch, the simplest way to start is to use a ready technology platform. Alsendo acts here as a digital connector that integrates entrepreneurs with the best courier platforms throughout Europe. What do you gain by choosing Alsendo technology as the foundation of your cross-border logistics? One hub, many possibilities: instead of negotiating contracts with dozens of carriers, you get access to the comprehensive Alsendo International service. The platform aggregates offers from local suppliers (so-called “local heroes”), which allows for faster and cheaper deliveries while maintaining flexibility. Process automation: Alsendo technology takes the operational burden off you. From choosing the most cost-effective offer (thanks to full cost transparency before shipping), through generating labels, to automatic shipment insurance – everything happens in one panel. Technology supporting Customer Experience: the platform offers tools building trust of foreign customers. You gain access to notifications in two languages (which eliminates communication barriers) and a unified real-time shipment tracking system, which significantly relieves your customer service department. Delivery flexibility (PUDO and Door-to-Door): thanks to technology integration, you can offer customers what they expect – both convenient deliveries to pickup points and parcel lockers (reducing CO2 emissions), as well as classic door-to-door deliveries. The entire process comes down to a few simple steps within the platform: you specify package parameters, choose the destination country and courier company, and the system takes care of the rest – from processing the order to delivering it to the local recipient in the EU. Thanks to this, you can focus on sales, and technology will handle logistics. Returns logistics – how to take care of it to gain, not lose? Returns in international commerce are a significant operational and cost challenge if not properly planned. Requiring a customer from Spain to independently ship a package to Poland is an inefficient model that hinders further purchases because it’s expensive and troublesome. A much better solution is implementing a system based on a local return address. Thanks to cooperation with a logistics partner, the customer returns the package to a cheap, domestic address. Then these packages are collected in a local warehouse and sent back to Poland in bulk, which allows reducing return costs in cross-border commerce. A well-organized process makes returns in e-commerce an asset, not a problem. A proactive action will be creating an extensive, translated FAQ section that will answer 80% of typical questions. Transparency should also be ensured, clearly informing about customer service office hours. How to measure the effectiveness of payments and deliveries in cross-border e-commerce? Implementing new solutions is only the beginning. To assess strategy effectiveness, key indicators should be constantly monitored, preferably broken down by individual countries. Analytics in e-commerce allows tracking primarily the conversion rate, analyzing its changes after implementing new solutions. It’s also important to examine the cart abandonment funnel to identify at which step the most customers drop off. Observing average order value (AOV) will show the effectiveness of free delivery thresholds, and comparing customer acquisition cost (CAC) with lifetime value (LTV) will give a complete picture of expansion profitability. How to combine logistics and payments to increase sales abroad? Success in cross-border commerce is not a matter of chance. It’s the result of a thoughtful strategy that puts the customer and their local habits at the center. For small and medium-sized online stores, the key is understanding that they don’t have to build global infrastructure from scratch. Instead, they should rely on intelligent partnerships and technology that will help them manage the complexity of logistics, returns and legal issues. Sources https://www.trade.gov.pl/en/news/polish-cross-border-e-commerce-during-the-customs-war-2025 https://www.przelewy24.pl/en/news/cross-border-commerce-ecommerce-guide-2026 https://apilo.com/pl/dlaczego-klienci-porzucaja-koszyk-najczestsze-powody-i-skuteczne-sposoby-by-temu-zapobiec/ https://www.pb.pl/56-proc-klientow-porzuci-koszyk-jesli-nie-moze-zaplacic-tak-jak-chce-1216147 https://coolbrand.pl/darmowa-dostawa-w-sklepie-internetowym-kiedy-sie-oplaca/ Anna Sztyk