Cross-border e-commerce, which involves operating an e-commerce business from within Japan to serve shoppers abroad, is attracting attention from many retailers. To expand sales channels through cross-border e-commerce, it is important to build a website environment tailored to the needs of customers in the countries and regions you are targeting.
Selling abroad presents a unique set of challenges distinct from those associated with domestic sales in Japan. Therefore, the deciding factor in your business's success or failure is selecting a cross-border e-commerce cart system that best supports international sales.
This article will explain the types of cross-border checkout solutions, the criteria for selecting one, and strategies to prevent cart abandonment during checkout.
Key takeaways
- A cross-border e-commerce cart is an e-commerce site building system equipped with the features necessary for selling overseas.
- Several cart categories exist, ranging from dedicated cross-border solutions to those capable of handling both domestic and international transactions.
- To choose the best solution, consideration needs to be given to not just payment methods, languages, and currency support in the target countries, but also cost-effectiveness and future scalability.
- Measures such as implementing one-click checkout are effective in reducing cart abandonment at checkout, and directly lead to improvements in the customer experience and conversion rates.
- With Stripe Checkout, you can enhance and simplify your e-commerce site's payment environment, with support for over 30 languages and more than 135 currencies.
What is a cross-border e-commerce cart?
A cross-border e-commerce cart (sometimes referred to as a "shopping cart") is a web development system that enables overseas shoppers to purchase products from online stores. It is characterised by capabilities specifically designed for global sales, including multilingual support, multicurrency handling, worldwide shipping, and tax calculation.
Unlike domestic e-commerce carts, cross-border carts address the various challenges associated with transactions abroad.
To pursue cross-border e-commerce, an alternative to listing items on marketplaces such as Amazon is to build your own online store. There are two options for doing so: using an existing cart system provided by a third-party company, or building one from the ground up – sometimes called a "full-scratch" build.
Building an in-house online store for overseas sales requires programming skills along with specialised knowledge of the business practices and legal regulations of the intended markets. For this reason, it is generally recommended to use a checkout platform combining core functions – such as customer management, product registration, and order processing – with the capabilities required for cross-border e-commerce.
The differences between e-commerce and cross-border e-commerce
Domestic e-commerce in Japan operates within a single language, currency, and regulatory framework. In contrast, because its purpose is to sell goods abroad, cross-border e-commerce requires support for different languages, currencies, payment methods, logistics, and tax systems.
In other words, while regular e-commerce targets domestic shoppers, cross-border retail aims to attract people in foreign markets.
Types of cross-border e-commerce carts
The main types of carts used in cross-border e-commerce are introduced below:
A cart for domestic shoppers that also supports cross-border e-commerce
This type of cart enables domestic online stores to support sales abroad, allowing shoppers in other markets to shop without any issues.
The advantage of this option is that the site has already been built, and its existing features can be used as-is, making implementation straightforward. On the other hand, because its capabilities are limited, the platform might not have the required functionality once you're ready to fully launch into foreign markets, making it necessary to consider external services specialised in cross-border e-commerce.
A dedicated cart specialised for cross-border e-commerce
This type of cart supports multiple languages, currencies, and payment options, and is designed for international sales. Customer interfaces and administrative dashboards for site operators are often multilingual, enabling smooth collaboration when local staff joins the operation.
A cross-border e-commerce cart tailored to specific countries and regions
Such carts are developed for English-speaking markets as well as specific countries and regions, including China, South Korea, and Thailand.
Because the available languages, payment methods, and shipping options are tailored to specific countries and regions, this is ideal for businesses that want to expand into certain target markets.
An overseas e-commerce mall
This approach involves opening a store in an established e-commerce marketplace in the destination market, rather than building an in-house cross-border online store. While it is straightforward to start a cross-border e-commerce business this way, it requires contracts and legal agreements with local e-commerce marketplace operators, which ultimately place certain limits on the site's flexibility.
Expanding cross-border e-commerce markets and the importance of cart selection
Selecting a reliable shopping cart capable of improving the customer experience has an impact beyond mere efficiency. In truth, it is a strategic decision that determines the success of a cross-border e-commerce business.
As revealed by a survey from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the cross-border online retail sector is growing steadily. The average annual growth rate from 2025 to 2034 is estimated at 23.1%. Expansion is expected to continue, with the market scale projected to reach US$6.72 trillion by 2034.
Especially in overseas markets where cross-border e-commerce is thriving, such as China and the United States, creating an online environment where customers can easily buy Japanese goods is a priority. Shoppers abroad might appreciate your offerings, but if issues such as concerns about security, the lack of their preferred checkout option, or poor support for their language make them feel the site lacks reliability or convenience, it will lead to cart abandonment.
Criteria for selecting a cross-border e-commerce cart
When selecting a cross-border e-commerce cart, consider the following points:
Are the target country’s popular payment methods available?
When selling products to overseas shoppers through cross-border e-commerce, supporting the payment methods commonly used in that country or region is key.
To ensure that local shoppers can pay with confidence, check in advance whether a variety of checkout options are available. Along with credit card payments, this must also include popular local digital wallets.
Can international shipping and duties be calculated and displayed automatically?
The lack of transparency regarding shipping costs and tariffs in cross-border e-commerce is a major factor contributing to abandoned carts. It is therefore valuable to have a feature that automatically calculates these amounts before checkout so that the exact total can be displayed.
Depending on the online store, customs authorities often calculate duties and tariffs for personal imports – the category covering most international orders – based on the invoice included with the shipment. As a result, the total charged at checkout might exclude duties, which the carrier collects upon delivery.
When using a cart system that doesn’t collect customs duties at checkout, post a clear notice in a prominent location on the payment screen informing shoppers of the policy. Doing so helps prevent complaints from people who were unaware of the charges.
Are multiple languages and currencies supported?
When pursuing cross-border e-commerce, ensure that the e-commerce site is multilingual and supports multicurrency.
When supporting several languages, it is important to go beyond simple machine translation and ensure the content is truly localised and presented in ways appropriate to regional culture and business practices. For this reason, you need to select an e-commerce cart that offers high-quality translation capabilities to ensure that necessary information for international sales, such as product details and shipping methods, is accurately conveyed to local shoppers. This will improve the trust and favourability potential customers feel towards your products.
The ability to display prices smoothly in the local currency can also give customers peace of mind and improve conversion rates.
Are the initial fees and operating costs compatible with the size of the business?
In addition to the initial setup fee, cross-border e-commerce carts incur fixed costs, including monthly service and payment processing fees. Assess cost-effectiveness against the background of your company's budget and the scale of operations.
Look beyond the cost of the cart by making a comprehensive assessment of its future scalability and consider a cart system that allows for upgrades and new features to be added as needed. The result is a sustainable e-commerce infrastructure that can flexibly accommodate business growth.
Understanding the different features of each shopping cart type
As shown in the table below, there are different kinds of e-commerce platforms for cart systems, including application service provider (ASP) and cloud-based systems. It is important to choose the option that best matches your company after considering the features and costs of each type.
|
Type |
Features |
Customisability |
Expenses |
|---|---|---|---|
|
ASP |
A model where software functionality is delivered through the cloud, with various features available to use over the internet |
Low |
Low |
|
Cloud |
Similar to ASP, a model that provides software through the cloud, but offers greater customisation than the ASP model |
High |
High |
|
Package |
A packaged system that includes all the features necessary for operating a shopping cart |
High |
High |
|
Open source |
A system that allows businesses to build and operate websites using source code that is available free of charge and requires no licensing fees |
High |
Low |
Preventing cart abandonment during checkout for cross-border e-commerce
There are many reasons why a cart might be abandoned. Still, in cross-border e-commerce, it tends to occur more frequently due to a combination of language and currency differences, concerns about unfamiliar shipping details, and the stress associated with the checkout process. The following section focuses on cart abandonment during checkout and reviews the steps businesses take to prevent it:
Adopt one-click purchases
A complicated or confusing payment process is one of the factors that reduces willingness to complete a purchase. A cart system with a one-click checkout feature helps simplify the purchasing process and can significantly reduce the time it takes to finish an order.
Customer-friendly shipping options
When shopping online, shipping charges are added to the cost of the items. When delivery costs in the shopping cart are high, it's not uncommon for customers to decide against making a purchase.
Establishing flexible shipping policies is an effective way to address this issue. These policies can include offering free shipping on purchases above a certain amount, or charging a flat rate regardless of weight or quantity. Also, clearly displaying the shipping policy in a prominent location on your e-commerce site can help resolve any questions or concerns customers might have before making a purchase, leading to a smooth checkout process.
Allow for guest checkouts
On websites that allow guest purchases without creating an account, shoppers can make purchases without feeling psychological pressure while using an unfamiliar overseas site for the first time.
After a purchase, consider measures to encourage repeat use of the site, such as automatically registering users with the information they already entered and offering discount coupons on the purchase confirmation screen.
Support multiple payment methods
If an international customer proceeds to the final step of checkout but abandons the purchase because they can't use any available payment methods, the business will lose valuable revenue.
Conduct preliminary research on the payment methods required for cross-border e-commerce in each target country and offer as many of the options preferred by local shoppers as possible. For example, when pursuing cross-border e-commerce to China, providing payment methods including WeChat Pay, Alipay, and UnionPay is ideal.
How Stripe Checkout can help
Stripe Checkout is a fully customisable prebuilt payment form that makes it easy for you to accept payments on your website or application.
Checkout can help you:
Increase conversion: Checkout's mobile-optimised design and one-click checkout flow make it simple for customers to input and reuse their payment information.
Reduce development time: Embed Checkout directly into your site, or direct customers to a Stripe-hosted page, with just a few lines of code.
Improve security: Checkout handles sensitive card data, simplifying PCI compliance.
Expand globally: Localise pricing in 100+ currencies with Adaptive Pricing, which supports 30+ languages and dynamically displays the payment methods most likely to improve conversion.
Use advanced features: Integrate Checkout with other Stripe products, such as Billing for subscriptions, Radar for fraud prevention and more.
Maintain control: Fully customise the checkout experience, including saving payment methods and setting up post-purchase actions.
Learn more about how Checkout can optimise your payment flow, or get started today.
FAQs about cross-border e-commerce carts
The content in this article is for general information and education purposes only and should not be construed as legal or tax advice. Stripe does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy, completeness, adequacy, or currency of the information in the article. You should seek the advice of a competent lawyer or accountant licensed to practise in your jurisdiction for advice on your particular situation.