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Live from Hollywood @GELF LA ’23: Growing Global Ecommerce with Pacsun’s CEO Mike Relich

At February’s GELF LA ’23, the GELF community welcomed back global ecommerce leader Michael Relich, co-CEO of Pacific Sunwear (Pacsun), and long-time GELF supporter, Matt Merrilees, CEO North America, Global-e.

After a great morning keynote fireside, Mike and Matt sat down with Michael LeBlanc, host of the Global Ecommerce Leaders Podcast. The fireside conversation at GELF LA ’23 explored how international localization and innovative social media campaigns celebrating youth and pop culture among Gen Z shoppers worldwide have driven Pacsun’s international market leadership. 

Mike, Matt and Michael cover a range of topics, recap the fireside and offer advice for the GELF community and our podcast audience. Listen in to the GELF LA ’23 Live from Hollywood Podcast where Mike also shares how he caught the retail bug as he journeyed from programmer into operations and now to senior management.

Capitalizing on Pacsun’s global brand awareness meant doubling down on global ecommerce Mike explains. Pacsun was not leveraging the full cross-border opportunity and the Gen Z shopper is increasingly a global shopper. Mike and Matt discuss the faster-than-expected transition from the Borderfree platform to Global-e’s international localization platform.

So far, the results have been impressive. Sales in Australia, where Pacsun really didn’t have a big presence, increased 500%. Since late Fall 2022, conversion rates have jumped over 200%.  Pacsun is seeing similar increases in Israel, in Mexico and in Canada.

Mike discusses how working with the Global-e team is essentially an extension of the Pacsun team in part because the compensation model is commission based.  This means that everyone wins when global ecommerce sales increase.  Monthly business reviews, Global-e’s recommendations about best practices and guidance regarding testing different pricing in international markets are all helping to grow the Pacsun business.

The podcast wraps up with Two Starts and One Stop. Mike’s advice for retail brands that want to grow international sales is to create a local experience on the operations side – especially regarding payment and currency conversion. Reverse logistics is another huge priority. 

Working with a good partner is the way to start. Mike also suggests global ecommerce leaders explore data from their social touchpoints and prioritize opportunities in the key markets by examining social insights.  

Listen in to the Global Ecommerce Leaders Podcast for great insights from GELF LA ’23 – nice work guys!

Until Next Time …

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