The project resulted in a comprehensive empirical study on understanding the cross-border demand dynamics with respect to the retailer and consumer characteristics. Our work has shown that there exist significant differences in consumer shopping habits in terms of gender, education, etc. From an operations perspective, we have found that the heterogeneity in the logistics capabilities of different EU countries lead to a big fragmentation in the EU e-commerce market. In their cross-border purchases, consumers choose to buy from retailers that are located in countries with high logistics capabilities. Yet, our findings have also shown that improved logistics capabilities would not always lead to higher cross-border sales for retailers. Importantly, we find that the rule of law in a country is a big determinant in how much demand the retailers can attract from abroad. As such, we find that consumers would be very reluctant to buy from countries where the regulative systems cannot be trusted, no matter how good the logistics performance is. In addition to this data-driven study, we have also developed an quantitative modeling framework to study the optimal revenue sharing schemes between two cross-border retailers where profitable payment schemes are studied. The findings have the potential to benefit retailers who want to expand their sales abroad. The work carried out in this project has been disseminated via several international conferences such as POMS, INFORMS, EURO conferences, as well as in events and workshops organized with other EU-funded projects, and through press releases.
