What Brands Get Wrong When Expanding Internationally—And How to Get It Right

Expanding internationally is a high-stakes game. The right move can unlock new revenue streams, lower your CAC, and build a truly global brand. But too often, brands rush in unprepared—without the market data, compliance know-how, or operational infrastructure to succeed. 

At FlavorCloud, we’ve helped thousands of brands launch and scale in international markets. From that experience, here’s what we see most often: brands underestimate the complexity and miss the opportunity in front of them. But when it is done right, brands can meet untapped consumer demand. In fact, for brands that expanded cross border, they grew their international shipments 76% year-over-year. 

Let’s break down the three most common mistakes brands make when going global—and how to avoid them. 

 Mistake #1: Limiting your markets 

Too often, brands assume they know where they’ll succeed internationally—and ignore the rest. But the smarter approach is to open up to the world, then let the data guide your focus. 

Instead of betting everything on one or two regions, enable global shipping from day one. Even if order volume is low in some countries, those early signals are powerful: they show you where to invest, how to localize your checkout, and where to test localized pricing. 

Use cross border analytics to get full visibility into where your customers are converting—and where friction is causing them to drop off. From there, you can fine-tune strategies by market: 

• Local currency display 

• Localize your market pricing by adjusting your landed costs into the product price to avoid sticker shock in the checkout 

• Optimized shipping promises and duties included checkout 

This approach not only uncovers high-opportunity regions you may have overlooked—it also reduces your overall customer acquisition costs (CAC) by capturing demand that already exists. 

Don’t limit your growth. Let your own global customer behavior tell you where to go next.  

Mistake #2: Overlooking compliance—and taking on risk you shouldn’t 

Compliance isn’t just paperwork. It’s one of the most critical, high-risk areas of expanding internationally. 

Brands often fail to: 

• Understand import restrictions (e.g., subscriptions into Canada must follow 90-day supply rules) 

• Classify products correctly (harmonized tariff system/HS codes, Country of Origin, etc.) 

• Assign the right party as Importer/Exporter of Record (IOR/EOR) 

And here’s the reality: FedEx, DHL, and UPS won’t take on customs liability. That risk lands squarely on you—or your customer. Get it wrong, and you could face blocked shipments, financial penalties, or worse. 

Smart brands work with partners who: 

• Own IOR/EOR responsibilities 

• Automate compliance by country 

• Guarantee duties and taxes at checkout 

This shifts liability off your plate and builds trust with your customers at the most critical conversion point: checkout.  

Mistake #3: Losing control of brand and costs 

As you scale globally, it’s easy to lose visibility into costs, payments, and customer experience. Whether it is selecting the wrong type of partner or delivery options, they can take a big toll on your consumer.  

Example 1: Some Merchant of Record models even take your brand name off the customer’s statement—diluting your relationship with the buyer.  

Example 2: Some models like offering your customers deliver duty unpaid (DDU) shipments may appear less expensive for the consumer, but then ultimately require them to pay additional fees before their product gets delivered, tarnishing their experience with your brand and often resulting in numerous returns to sender.   

Here’s how to stay in control: 

• Ensure your brand is on the customer’s credit card statement 

• Avoid hidden costs by partnering with providers who guarantee shipments are delivered duty paid (DDP) and have all-in landed costs 

• Hold delivery promises by using multi-carrier shipping networks that can adapt to disruptions 

When a major carrier strikes or service is delayed, your customers don’t want excuses—they want their order, on time. That’s why resiliency in your carrier network is just as important as delivery speed. 

Mistake #4: Failing to localize properly 

With a volatile tariff and trade market, understanding what it means to your end consumer can be the difference between a sale and an abandoned shopping cart. For example, turning on a country, but not localizing the currency on the shipping, duties, and tariffs, makes it confusing for end consumer and may diminish trust 

• Understanding  the tariff impact on the destination country can help inform your pricing strategy to identify how best to position your products to consumers.   

• Local market pricing where it makes sense. For example, in some markets where the import tariff on a product is high, you may want to consider bundling the tariff cost into the product cost rather than showing it at checkout to support conversion. 

• Localize currency in checkout to reduce buyer confusion. Buyers will expect the entire shopping cart and checkout experience to be in a single currency (theirs), so if the experience is disjointed with multiple currencies, you might lose a sale. 

• Use a multi-carrier network. All carriers are not created equally and some won’t carry specific products or don’t have a great delivery record with specific products. Make sure your international shipping solution offers the routing intelligence to know which carrier can provide the right service level, quality, and consumer delivery experience.   

Finding the right cross border partner can make all the difference. Organizations like FlavorCloud can optimize your shopping cart conversion and run scenarios to identify the best way to drive conversion each region.   

Real-world example: Animalhouse Fitness 

Take Animalhouse Fitness, a premium fitness equipment brand with global ambition. In partnership with FlavorCloud, they used DDP (Delivered Duties Paid) shipping and real-time order analytics to map international demand, reduce risk, and expand with confidence. 

Starting in the US, they quickly launched into Canada, then the UK, and most recently, Australia—all driven by market insights and performance data. 

"FlavorCloud helped us really quickly see where we are actually selling outside the US. It eliminates the ambiguity of what we want to do next."
— Camy Raissian, Head of Operations at Animalhouse Fitness 

With guaranteed duties and taxes built into checkout, Animalhouse built trust, improved conversion, and simplified support—no customs surprises, no international headaches. Read more about Animalhouse Fitness here.  

Bonus tip: Don’t let returns or regulation derail you 

Returns are inevitable, and regulations are constantly shifting. You need tools that surface fully landed costs at checkout and manage returns as returns, not new shipments (which can incur double duties). 

At FlavorCloud, our Trade & Tariffs Hub keeps you ahead of regulatory changes, and our compliance tech ensures your cross-border strategy stays airtight. 

Because expanding internationally doesn’t just require logistics—it requires intelligence. 

Ready to go global, the right way? 

Avoiding these common pitfalls doesn’t just protect your brand—it accelerates your growth. Whether you’re launching into your first international market or scaling into your fourth, FlavorCloud gives you the tools, data, and partnership to expand confidently. 

Let’s make going global feel easy.