U.S. ecommerce companies appear to have their sights set on Europe as a key expansion opportunity going forward, according to a recent study by Avarto. The top European pick for U.S. brands is Germany, with 31% of 200 executives surveyed responding that they plan to expand there. After that, 22% of respondents identified the Benelux countries, France and Italy as important targets for European expansion.

Despite the European Commission working to standardize payments options across the EU, the payments landscape is still extremely varied across Europe. As a result, the ecommerce retailers most likely to find success in European expansion will need to adopt an omnichannel approach.

All of the surveyed companies offered credit cards as a payment option and some allowed payments through PayPal. However, retailers need to adapt to the payment preferences of each target region. For example, 40% of German ecommerce transactions are completed through PayPal and almost 10% of Swedish ecommerce payments are made through eWallets.

While many U.S.-based ecommerce businesses see opportunity in European expansion, there is a lot of work that goes into actually converting customers in each country. This includes localized ecommerce elements and payment options customers would expect.