Before we jump into cross-border shopping proxies, let’s clarify what cross-border shopping and proxy servers are.
Cross-border shopping entails buying products from a foreign country. Since there are no borders on the internet, most online retailers are using this chance to sell their products to people all over the world via their e-commerce stores or online stores. Obviously, online shoppers love it, and why wouldn’t they? They have access to millions of products and brands from the comfort of their own home. All they need is a mobile phone or computer and the internet to start shopping online.
The product variety is one of the main reasons why people shop from foreign online stores. They have a lot more options to choose from than when shopping locally. Another reason is availability. A certain item may not be available in their country, so the only way to buy it is to order it from a foreign country.
Price is also a factor as you can find many products with a significantly lower price in foreign online shops. Retailers are common cross-border online shoppers as prices are usually lower when buying in bulk, allowing them to resell foreign products to locals.
Most corporations have different prices for every region. For example, the price for the latest AAA game is presented in USD for the American region, and it’s the same value but in EUR for the European region. Now, 100USD and 100EUR are not the same – the difference is almost 15%! On top of that, you can get software, streaming service subscriptions, plane tickets, holiday deals, and many other things a lot cheaper just by using a proxy from a different region.
A proxy server is an intermediary that functions as a bridge between an internet user and the rest of the internet. It works by receiving your web requests and forwarding them to the target website without revealing your IP address and location.
Instead, websites can only see the proxy’s IP address which is different than yours. The proxy receives the responses to your requests and forwards the content to your original IP. You can choose an IP address for your proxy from whatever country or location you want, and the websites will think that’s actually your IP address and location.
The primary purpose of a proxy server is to keep your IP address and location private, which protects your sensitive data and leaves no traces of your online activities. But, how can this help you when shopping across borders?
Sometimes, hiding the fact that you’re a foreign shopper can improve your cross-border online shopping experience. That’s because many e-commerce sites offer different content for users in different countries.
For example, some products from a Chinese e-commerce store may not be available to people in the United States or Europe, even though they are available to people in China. In that case, you’d want the e-commerce store to think you’re actually in China. A proxy can help you do this by allowing you to choose a Chinese IP address, making it seems as you’re just another local shopper.
Also, by hiding your actual location and making e-commerce stores think you’re a local buyer, you can take advantage of price differences and spend significantly less money on the products you’re interested in.
The best cross-border shopping proxies will keep your true location and IP hidden at all times, so you don’t have to worry about bans or blocks. IPRoyal provides premium residential and datacenter proxies with IPs worldwide for all your international shopping needs.
Residential proxies are ideal for cross-border online shopping as they give you an IP address from a real device from the country you want. Datacenter proxies are also an option as they provide high speeds and unlimited bandwidth. However, since you need security more than speed in this case, residential proxies are a much better choice.