Cross-border e-commerce enables direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands to diversify their customer base and generate higher revenue by selling outside the home market. Success hinges on implementing a conversion-optimized shipping and delivery strategy that protects your bottom line while attracting international customers.
While this might appear challenging, global e-commerce expansion actually presents a unique innovation opportunity for decision makers through exposure to diverse customer preferences and new partnerships. To explore this potential, we spoke with Johannes Kayser, COO at Ninepine, a Stockholm-based design studio creating womenswear for everyday life.
Identify business and tech roadblocks
Ninepine creates versatile, thoughtfully designed pieces for women’s everyday life. When Johannes Kayser, COO, set out to scale the Swedish fashion brand globally, he faced a complex puzzle that many enterprise brands know all too well. How do you offer flexible, localized delivery experiences across 50+ countries while maintaining profitability and operational efficiency with just a lean team of four core employees?
A bootstrap profitable company turning over €35-40 million annually, Ninepine built its success on rigorous A/B testing — everything from physical minimal viable products (MVPs) to content marketing strategies. Yet when it came to delivery optimization, the brand hit roadblocks that threatened to limit their international expansion.
“Shipping and delivery are the second highest business costs,” Johannes says. “At the same time, consumers want flexible delivery options — cheap, fast, with choice. You need to be able to understand local customer preferences. As a retailer, you need a multi-channel, multi-market, multi-carrier strategy. That's what makes delivery so complex.”
Fragmented carrier management
Managing multiple carriers across different markets meant dealing with integration headaches and inconsistent naming conventions.
Customs and compliance issues
Shipping above and below certain order value thresholds required different processes, leading to operational headaches. Navigating tariffs and customs regulations and tariffs in different countries makes quite a challenge for cross-border e-commerce.
Limited testing capabilities
Ninepine lacked delivery testing tools on Shopify Plus to find the sweet spot between customer preferences and business profitability in their delivery options.
Regional strategy uncertainty
With limited visibility into what delivery options actually drove conversions in new markets, Ninepine struggled to validate regional assumptions on a global scale.
Create a global expansion hypothesis
Rather than viewing shipping as a necessary cost center, Ninepine approached delivery with a fundamental shift in perspective. “For us, delivery is a brand investment,” Johannes emphasizes. ”We don't do big posters or influencer campaigns — the total user experience and the product is what we call brand investment.”
This philosophy led to a clear hypothesis — by offering superior delivery experiences tailored to each market's preferences, Ninepine could build brand trust, reduce cart abandonment, and drive higher conversion rates. Especially in markets where customers might be skeptical about purchasing goods online from a less known Swedish brand.
The team's approach was methodical and followed their established priority framework. First, the conversion rate, because only marketing and customer acquisition costs exceed shipping expenses. Then, customer experience, i.e., making sure customers receive their orders reliably and conveniently. Finally, cost optimization and delivery experience monetization once the first two priorities are met.
Experiment and validate assumptions
Ninepine implemented the Ingrid Delivery App for Shopify Plus, which provided the missing piece of the optimization puzzle — the ability to A/B test delivery options at scale. “We stay within the Shopify universe and work with recommended systems, and the delivery checkout integration with Ingrid really helps us run our business so efficiently,” Johannes says.
Designed exclusively for Shopify, the Ingrid Delivery App offers effortless setup, and Ninepine installed it directly from the Shopify App Store with minimal development effort. The app integrated seamlessly with the online store's existing Shopify theme and checkout.
“Since all carriers are already integrated with Ingrid, there's no manual integration work required on our end,” Johannes confirms. “Here’s the game changer — our ability to A/B test different delivery options in checkout. What works varies greatly by region.”
Advanced A/B testing
“We A/B test our delivery options, and I can see how conversion metrics, shipping revenue, and average order value (AOV) change across different carriers.”
Seamless carrier management
With over 300 carrier product integrations available through Ingrid, Ninepine can test new delivery options without any technical overhead
Premium user experience
The platform provides elegant UI/UX for carrier selection, including interactive maps for out-of-home (OOH) delivery selection and accurate delivery times.
Smooth operations
With just four core team members managing a €35-40 million business across 50+ countries, automation and a smart business logic are non-negotiable.
United States
Challenge
Identifying consumer demand is key when deciding which countries to sell in. American customers might hesitate to order from a less known Swedish brand, concerned about product origin and shipping.
A/B test
Ninepine's team first added delivery times to product pages, then A/B tested standard 3-5 day delivery against express shipping options. For East Coast customers, they offered free next-day delivery; West Coast customers got free two-day shipping.
Results
“Offering free next-day delivery as a pre-selected option at checkout led to a huge conversion rate uplift with a little bit of AOV growth.”
Strategic insights
The conversion lift was significant enough to justify negotiating better express rates with shipping carriers for a scalable competitive advantage.
United Kingdom
Challenge
Building on the US market success, Ninepine launched a similar shipping offering A/B test in the UK, knowing that delivery preferences can vary dramatically across different regions.
A/B test
After adding shipping timeframes to product pages, Ninepine tested whether customers preferred standard 3-5 day delivery or a free express shipping alternative.
Results
“In the UK, the conversion rate uplift wasn't significant enough to justify a free express shipping offer.”
Strategic insight
UK customers showed more brand loyalty and patience — they don’t mind waiting a few days, possibly due to Brexit — which allows Ninepine to focus on delivery pricing optimization rather than speed premiums.
Netherlands
Challenge
Before using Ingrid, Ninepine relied on Budbee’s parcel lockers as the most cost-effective carrier in the Dutch market.
A/B test
To expand their local carrier options, Ninepine A/B tested DHL's parcel lockers against Budbee, comparing conversion rates and shipping revenue.
Results
DHL converted highest but cost the most, so customers could qualify for free shipping at a lower order value with Budbee parcel lockers.
Strategic insight
Carrier preferences change from market to market, so it’s crucial to create flexible offers that meet different customer needs and test various free shipping thresholds to boost conversions while protecting margins.
Sweden
Challenge
Sweden's diverse delivery landscape includes home delivery, out-of-home shipping, weekend delivery, named-day options, and more. Was it worth it to offer PostNord, the market-leading but most expensive carrier option?
A/B test
Ninepine A/B tested PostNord as a premium, pre-selected option with an added fee against other local players like Budbee and Bring.
Results
“Turns out, our customers don’t really care, all carriers convert in a similar way when pre-selected. Customers know we ship from Sweden, and their orders are going to arrive safe and sound.”
Strategic insight
Test results revealed a delivery monetization opportunity. “Customers who want PostNord are happy to pay a small premium to choose it, and that extra revenue helps cover other shipping expenses.”
Key takeaways for e-commerce leaders
Localize your delivery offerings
What works in one market may not work in another. Systematic testing reveals regional preferences that can dramatically impact both conversion rates and operational costs.
Create premium customer experiences
Stop seeing delivery as a cost center. Treat it as a brand investment — from checkout and delivery to tracking and returns — that drives international expansion, customer loyalty, and measurable revenue growth.
Achieve operational efficiency at scale
Seamless platform integration eliminates manual processes and reduces errors, enabling lean teams to manage complex global operations.
Justify renegotiating your shipping rates
A/B testing delivery options provide concrete data for carrier negotiations and strategic decision-making, moving beyond vendor promises to actual performance metrics.
How can your brand get there?
Experimentation is as a marker of innovation, but putting ideas into production can be more complex than it or sounds. Teams may have the intent, yet without the right operational support, it's difficult to mode ideas from discussion to deployment. Most common restraints include environments for testing, tracking, and data. Although commerce stacks have evolved significantly in recent years, commerce teams are still adapting their internal structures to match the growing complexity of their platforms with cross-border e-commerce.
"Retailers are often under pressure to solve multiple problems at once: sell more, improve experience, launch faster and cut costs. Even with a modern tech stack, integrating multiple systems simultaneously compounds complexity. Integration isn’t just a technical task, it’s a structural challenge. If you don’t design for connection, you end up designing for friction.”
— André Sikborn Erixon, VP of Growth, Ingrid
With Ingrid, Shopify Plus retailers can offer a seamless delivery experience at every step of the customer journey. Localized, flexible delivery options increase your conversion, and our smart business logic ensures your shipping stays profitable. One-click install, customizable components, ready-to-go integrations, simplified returns and easy exchanges, all built for scale in a single app.
