One Ecommerce Tool Makes Doing Business Internationally Easier How Gilt Groupe uses FiftyOne to help manage overseas currencies, taxes and more.

Last year, New York City-based Gilt Groupe wanted to expand internationally. But the online luxury retailer faced all the headaches that come from trying to move product overseas: currency conversions; language barriers; obscure and seemingly random taxes, duties and postal regulations. In addition to straightforward e-commerce, Gilt hoped to offer its famous "flash sales"--brief special offers at a particular time of day, on a country-by-country basis, adjusted for different time zones and hemispheres.

The Fix
After assessing its options (including UPS and International Checkout), Gilt signed on with Columbus, Ohio-based FiftyOne. Its Global Ecommerce platform localized Gilt's shopping site initially to 90 countries. "We saw improvement right off the bat in site activity but wanted to take time to work with FiftyOne on getting the currency conversions just right," says Gilt chief supply chain officer Christopher Halkyard. So Gilt implemented FiftyOne's technology in phases; its offerings are now in 100 countries.