EU Cross-Border E-commerce💶

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🧠 Big Story: 
Cross Border in Europe & solution to its needs

📖 Ecommerce ecosystem news:

🇩🇪 Google's AI Search Slashes Website Traffic.
🇺🇸 Best Buy’s Creator Program Boosts Influencers.
🇺🇸 Stripe applies for banking license, not becoming a bank.
🇳🇱 Salesupply launches MarketplaceCare 365 for sellers.
🇪🇺 Temu and DHL Team Up for European SME Growth.
🇺🇸 FedEx, UPS Lose Ground to Retailers, Couriers.


+ over 15 handpicked hot ecommerce news from the last week you need to know 🔥

In this issue, we dive into Cross-Border Trade in Europe — in partnership with Ebury.
Looking ahead, we’re cooking up our first ebook on Retail Media, out by July. It’s a topic we’ve skipped so far, but one that’s key to the future of both retail and marketplaces.
Got ideas or materials you’d love to see? Just hit reply — we’re all ears.

Let’s make the e-commerce world a little smarter. Together.

Ecommerce in the EU is growing, and cross-border sales now make up 25% of transactions. However, businesses face high fees, including currency conversion and banking charges. Understanding these costs is crucial for profitable cross-border expansion.

📉 EU ecommerce

According to Eurostat, The EU’s ecommerce share has dropped to 19% after the UK’s exit. Before Brexit, the UK held a 21% share, significantly impacting the EU27 average. Eurostat data tracks only companies with 10+ employees, showing a structural shift in the market. Ecommerce remains a key revenue driver, but growth is uneven across regions.

🌍 Ecommerce by country

Ecommerce penetration across EU countries remains highly fragmented. Denmark leads with 30% of enterprise turnover coming from ecommerce, followed by Finland (29%), Belgium (29%), and Sweden (26%). In contrast, Bulgaria (8%) and Greece (8%) rank at the bottom. Larger enterprises (250+ employees) dominate digital commerce, with 45.9% conducting e-sales and generating 22.9% of total revenue from ecommerce. Medium enterprises (50–249 employees) contribute 15.1%, while small businesses (10–49 employees) generate just 8.1%.

🏪 85% of web sales via own site/app

Most businesses prefer selling through their own platforms. 85% of web-based sales in the EU occur via a company’s own site or app. These direct sales generate 6% of total EU business turnover - six times higher than marketplace-based sales (1%).

🌐 25% of web sales are cross-border

25% of eCommerce transactions are cross-border. Countries like Slovenia, Latvia, and Hungary process 40% of their transactions with the EU or other countries. In contrast, France and Norway conduct most ecommerce transactions domestically, with cross-border sales accounting for less than 10% of web sales. Meanwhile, Latvia, Estonia, Slovenia, and Lithuania have the highest share of ecommerce transactions outside the EU.

💳 High costs for cross-border

Sending money across borders remains costly. World Bank data shows that the average global remittance cost rose to 6.65% in Q2 2024, with banks charging the most at 13.4%, while mobile payment services offer the lowest rates at 3.85%. Stripe highlights that businesses using online payment platforms for international transactions pay between 3.4% and 5.4% in cross-border fees, depending on the location.

💰 Conversion makes it worse

Currency conversion fees add another layer of expense. Many businesses unknowingly increase costs by mismatching presentment and settlement currencies, leading to double conversion charges. Align these currencies to minimize extra fees. Unclear foreign exchange (FX) rates often leave consumers with unexpected final charges, leading to lower customer & merchant satisfaction. Transparency in currency exchange remains a major issue in global ecommerce.

🏦 Ebury leads in currency risk

Ebury is the leading payments specialist that helps small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) operate and grow internationally.

It is a global fintech company with a comprehensive and tailored offering to enable businesses to make and collect cross-border payments, manage currency risk and access business lending.

A 2024 CB Insights report ranks Ebury as a top player in the sector. With its unified solutions, centralised platform, global currency coverage and bespoke approach, it helps global business unleash their growth potential.

Selling online involves various dynamics to navigate, including payment processing costs, making secure and on-time payments, receiving funds from all over the world, working with different marketplaces, mitigating currency fluctuations, managing working capital and many more. Ebury  understands these unique challenges and helps online sellers transact globally, collect seamlessly from customers and protect their margins when doing cross-border transactions.

🌐 Ebury’s e-commerce solutions

Ebury offers a comprehensive suite of solutions tailored to the needs of the global e-commerce industry. With online support in 10+ languages and personalized service in 20+ countries, Ebury acts as a one-stop shop for businesses navigating global e-commerce challenges. Its solutions include:

1. International payments in 130+ currencies, including major and emerging markets, at competitive exchange rates.

2. Local account details in your name to get paid like a local in 14+ currencies, including GBP, EUR, AUD, SGD, USD, etc.

3. Currency accounts in 29+ currencies, such as HUF, PLN, GBP, RON, CZK, BGN, USD, EUR, JPY, USD, CAD, AUD and more.

4. Hedging strategies tailored to the unique needs of e-commerce businesses, risk tolerance levels, costs and goals in 60+ currencies. This helps online sellers protect their margins from exchange rate fluctuations.

5. Flexible credit lines, helping online sellers maintain stable cash flow and bridge their working capital gap.

6. Easily collect from online marketplaces in your choice of currency and boost your e-commerce sales.

7. Seamless integrations with ERP systems such as Xero, NetSuite to streamline account payables and receivables and reduce manual effort.

Tariff war escalates: U.S. hits 145%, China responds with 125%.

The New York Times visualizes the blow-by-blow escalation of tariffs between the U.S. and China, highlighting how Trump's 145% hikes triggered proportional retaliation from Beijing. A striking timeline shows how economic aggression unfolded over just two months. 👉 The New York Times

Nine trends shaping the future of European grocery retail.

McKinsey highlights 2025-and-beyond shifts including sluggish volume growth, Gen Z's food-to-go habits, and a 20% CAGR in retail media. Their boxed graphic summary breaks down key forces from sustainability to digital readiness. 👉 McKinsey – State of Grocery Europe Report

Performance Max in 2025: Cost-per-click vs. value-per-click decoded.

Smarter Ecommerce dives into Performance Max data, revealing a strong correlation (R = 0.88) between click cost and value in high-performing segments. The graph shows that higher CPCs can be worth it—if you land in the right quadrant. 👉 Smarter Ecommerce blog

🇩🇪 Google's AI Search Slashes Website Traffic. Google's AI search cuts website traffic by up to 90%, hitting blogs like The Planet D, which closed in 2024 after losing most visitors. Smaller sites struggle as big players like YouTube gain, sparking calls for EU rules to protect content creators. 👉 Onlinehaendler News

🇺🇸 Best Buy’s Creator Program Boosts Influencers. Best Buy’s 2025 Creator program lets influencers like Linus Tech Tips (16M subscribers) earn unlimited commissions on tech sales through curated storefronts. It aims to help shoppers discover gadgets while growing sales via impact.com’s platform. 👉 Best Buy Corporate

🇺🇸 Meta Adds Teen Protections on Social Platforms. Meta’s Teen Accounts for Facebook and Messenger, rolling out in 2025 across the US and UK, lock in privacy settings and time limits for under-18s. Teens under 16 need parental approval to tweak settings, addressing safety amid EU and US scrutiny. 👉 The Verge

🇺🇸 Uber, Instacart Team Up for Ad Expansion. Uber and Instacart’s 2025 ad partnership links 7,000+ brands to 220+ retailers, letting CPG ads run on both platforms via Instacart’s Carrot Ads. It simplifies campaigns to reach grocery shoppers, with Shoppable Display ads planned for late 2025. 👉 Search Engine Land

🇺🇸 Walmart Pushes Brands for More Ad Cash. Walmart asks brands to hike ad spend by 25%-50%, with one facing a $45M bill in 2025, despite flat sales. Some brands are bailing, frustrated by weak returns, highlighting retail media’s growing pains. 👉 Adweek

🇺🇸 TikTok Ads Drop as Brands Flee to Meta. TikTok’s Q1 2025 ad spend falls as 8 of 10 top categories cut budgets over ban fears, though it’s set to earn $14.8B in US revenue. Brands shift to Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, where CPMs rise, leaving TikTok’s future shaky. 👉 Search Engine Land

🇬🇧 PayPal Ads Hit UK with Privacy Focus. PayPal Ads launches in the UK by July 2025, using purchase data for personalized ads across nearly 25% of global e-commerce. It targets better sales for merchants and brands while prioritizing user privacy with 430M users. 👉 ChannelX World

🇺🇸 Stripe applies for banking license, not becoming a bank. Stripe, valued at $91.5B, applied for a U.S. banking license to process payments, not take deposits, with approval expected by Q3 2025. In 2024, it handled $1.4T in payments after Wells Fargo exited BIN sponsorship, says a Stripe spokesperson. 👉 TechCrunch

🇳🇱 Salesupply launches MarketplaceCare 365 for sellers. Salesupply’s new service, launched this week, helps marketplace sellers with compliance and cost flexibility, tackling rising labor costs. Hans Siebum, Managing Director, says it supports growth, with 63% customer satisfaction reported by ChannelEngine. 👉 EcommerceNews

🇺🇸 Klarna, StubHub delay IPOs due to tariff turmoil. Klarna and StubHub, each aiming for $1B IPOs, postponed plans due to market chaos from Trump’s tariff announcements, set to hit road shows next week. The delay, tied to market instability, impacts their financial strategies, says TechCrunch. 👉 TechCrunch

🇳🇱 Salesupply’s MarketplaceCare 365 aids sellers. Salesupply launched MarketplaceCare 365 this week to ensure seller compliance and cut costs, with a hybrid AI chatbot from last year boosting service. Hans Siebum notes it helps growth without cost spikes, with 63% satisfaction per ChannelEngine. 👉 EcommerceNews

🇪🇺 Temu and DHL Team Up for European SME Growth. Temu, owned by PDD Holdings, partners with DHL to help European SMEs grow using a local-to-local model, targeting 80% of sales from local warehouses by 2028. The EU monitors Temu for safety issues, with import duties under 150 euros ending in 2028. 👉 Ecommerce News

🇺🇸 FedEx, UPS Lose Ground to Retailers, Couriers. FedEx and UPS see market share drop as Amazon, Walmart, and smaller couriers like OnTrac gain, with 2024 parcel volumes at 23.8B, up 4% from 2023. Walmart’s e-commerce, now 17% of sales, drives growth, with revenues hitting $188B. 👉 FreightWaves

🇩🇪 DHL Raises Parcel Rates for Peak Season. DHL adds a 0.50 euros fee from Nov 24 to Dec 7, 2025, on top of a 0.19 euros surcharge, totaling 0.69 euros more per shipment. Retailers may focus on Singles Day, Nov 11, to avoid high fees during Black Week and Cyber Week. 👉 Ecommerce News

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