More than five years on from the UK’s departure from the European Union, many retailers are still adapting to the realities of cross-border trade. New customs requirements, regulatory complexity and rising fulfilment costs have increased the operational burden of selling into Europe, with fashion brands feeling the impact particularly acutely. Yet, while some retailers have scaled back their European operations in response to these challenges, others have adapted their approach and continued to grow.
Luxury outerwear brand Jack1t is one example. Launched in 2023 in a post-Brexit world, the ambitious business immediately set out to establish a strong European presence, whilst building the infrastructure needed to scale despite the additional barriers facing UK retailers looking to expand across the region.
The challenge
Jack1t wanted to boost brand awareness whilst maintaining a direct relationship with customers through its own webshop. Blending alpine luxury with contemporary streetwear, the brand sought to expand its reach across multiple markets while maintaining control of the customer experience. However, this meant managing inventory, fulfilment and sales across a growing number of channels.
The wider market context made expansion even more challenging. Research published by Retail Economics and Tradebyte in June 2024 found that British clothing exports to the EU had dropped by more than 60% since Brexit, reflecting the logistical, regulatory and cost pressures facing UK fashion retailers.
The business needed a way to serve both marketplace and direct-to-consumer shoppers without fragmenting stock or creating additional operational overhead through individual integrations. For Jack1t, success depended on finding a model that could support expansion without adding unnecessary operational complexity.
The strategy
Determined to move forward and overcome these challenges, Jack1t adopted a marketplace-first approach to European expansion, turning to Tradebyte to build the infrastructure needed to support it.
Rather than pursuing a traditional wholesale model, the brand focused on marketplaces as a route into key European territories. This enabled Jack1t to access established customer bases whilst maintaining a consistent brand experience across markets.
Tradebyte’s TB.ONE e-commerce marketplace integration platform provided the foundation for this strategy, enabling seamless connections with major European marketplaces, including Zalando and About You. This reduced the need for lengthy, bespoke integrations and allowed new channels to be activated more quickly as the business expanded.
Zalando’s fulfilment services, ZFS and ZEOS, were a key part of the solution. Through a unified stock pool, Jack1t was able to fulfil orders for marketplace and DTC shoppers from the same inventory. This simplified operations as new channels were added. Rather than managing separate fulfilment processes across markets, Jack1t was able to support both marketplace and webshop orders from a single operational model.
The results
Within 18 months, Jack1t had built a European presence that would take many retailers years to establish. The business expanded into 14 European territories, established 31 live channel connections and generated more than €11 million in GMV, representing 107% year-on-year growth.
Beyond the commercial impact, the rollout also addressed many of the operational challenges associated with cross-border expansion. By serving marketplace and direct-to-consumer orders through the same fulfilment model, Jack1t was able to simplify day-to-day operations as it scaled.
As Brad Brooke, Director and CSO, Jack1t, explains:
“Post Brexit, we are now able to bring products directly into Europe and service several marketplaces in key regions, as well as fulfilling our own DTC sales via our partnership with ZEOS. We no longer have to forecast stock/sales by channel and benefit hugely from stock optimisation.”
At a time when many UK retailers were navigating the complexities of post-Brexit trade, Jack1t and Tradebyte’s partnership demonstrated that cross-border growth remained achievable. By combining marketplace expansion with integrated fulfilment and inventory management, the brand built a scalable model capable of supporting rapid growth across multiple European markets.
While Brexit has undoubtedly changed the mechanics of selling into Europe, growth opportunities remain for brands that combine the right marketplace strategy with the infrastructure needed to support it.
