British retailers and types will not be benefiting from the growing cross-border ecommerce spending on the opposite side of the Channel. Especially providers of clothing and footwear have seen their sales in continental Europe drastically decrease after Brexit.
This is clear from research by consultancy firm Retail Economics and Tradebyte, Zalando Group’s marketplace integrator. They calculate that the cross-border sales volume of clothing and footwear has dropped from 7.4 billion kilos in 2019 to 2.7 billion kilos in 2023.
Declining interest and reduced activities
The drop of a minimum of 64 percent is the results of declining interest from European buyers and reduced online sales activities by retailers and types from the UK. More so than the multinationals, British SMEs are affected by the modified international playing field.
The trade volume decreased by 64% in 4 years.
The research “shows the extent to which complex regulations and red tape on the border have deterred firms from sending goods across the Channel,” concludes The Guardian. Across the board, sales of British non-food products to customers in continental Europe fell by 18 percent. The one sectors to extend export sales over the identical period were health and wonder, and DIY and gardening, offsetting a few of the fall from clothing and footwear.
Cross-border ecommerce in Europe
Meanwhile, online spending in Europe is increasing again after a stabilization period, with shoppers spending a growing portion of their budget in shops from other countries. A development that Asos, which initially thought it could take advantage of Brexit, and other British online players at the moment are not riding along.
“Online retail is estimated so as to add 323 billion kilos of annual sales to EU economies, but additional trade frictions attributable to Brexit-related complexities are curtailing this international sales opportunity for UK-based brands and retailers”, the report states.
