Department stores still lagging in international fulfilment

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Jul 18, 2017

While the majority of department stores worldwide provide international fulfilment options, retailers are failing to leverage simple but powerful features, says a new report from L2.

The business intelligence firm analysed department store brands from 14 countries, and found that 57% of department stores offer international shipping to one or more countries outside their primary market.

France leads the way with 100% of department stores offering international fulfilment, followed by the UK with 73% and the US with 72%. South Korea ranks 4th with 67%, while Germany rounds up the top 5 with 25%. Both Japan and Canada have zero stores offering international shipping.

Providing options for overseas shoppers is important, but department stores need to get it right, says L2. Only 15% of e-commerce-enabled brands allow customers to select their currency and preferred language, and only 9% of brands offer dedicated webpages.

Additionally, many department stores fail to communicate their international shipping and return policies on site, and do a poor job providing other tourist-specific information.

Another frontier for growth is click-and-collect. Still in its infancy in the US, data estimates show that 78% of UK shoppers will use this delivery option by 2020, and industry adoption rates in Asian and European markets are approaching 80%.

Interest in the US is also on the rise, with 51% of US shoppers using click-and-collect in 2016 being first-time users.