The beginning of a new year or business quarter is always a great opportunity for e-commerce businesses to set new goals. Given the limitations of the domestic market, one of the most logical ways to scale is to expand beyond national borders. However, the perceived or actual costs involved – and the complexity of the process – often discourage businesses before they even get past the planning stage.

Does entering a new market really cost tens of millions of forints? In this article, we break down the initial and ongoing monthly costs you should expect. We’ll also look at the areas where you don’t necessarily need to take on significant fixed costs right from the start.

This article was created as part of the collaboration between Everigo, a company supporting Hungarian e-commerce businesses with personalized international growth services — and Pactic, which provides cross-border logistics solutions for merchants planning international expansion.

Why is international expansion worth it?

Before looking at the actual numbers, it’s important to understand why international expansion can be worth the investment. Cross-border e-commerce can be one of the most effective ways to achieve long-term stability and revenue growth:

Significant revenue growth: By breaking through the limitations of your domestic market, you can reach millions of new potential customers.

Less competition in specific niches: A segment that is already saturated in Hungary may still offer significant opportunities in a neighbouring country.

Risk diversification: Operating in several countries means that a local economic slowdown or regulatory change in Hungary is less likely to affect your entire business.

International brand building: A brand operating successfully across several countries can also gain greater credibility and value in its home market.

So, what does international expansion actually involve, and how much does it really cost?

1. Market research: the most important investment

Entering a new country blindly can be one of the most expensive mistakes you make. You need a clear understanding of your target audience, its size and shopping habits, competitor pricing and marketing activities, and potential gaps in the market.

Everigo’s data-driven market research service maps competitors and pricing strategies, with prices starting from €350 per country. More complex, customised analyses may cost more, but this is an investment that can prevent you from wasting significantly larger amounts on the wrong market.

Market research shouldn’t focus solely on whether there is demand for your products. You also need to understand how consumers in the target country prefer to shop. Which payment methods do they use? Do they prefer home delivery, pick-up points or parcel lockers? How important is cash on delivery? What delivery time do they consider acceptable?

The answers to these questions directly influence both your webshop’s conversion rate and the logistics costs of entering the market.

2. Native-language translation and localisation

Trust starts with speaking your customers’ language. Your website needs to communicate in flawless native-level language while also reflecting local cultural expectations – including units of measurement, currencies and legally compliant privacy information.

For webshops, Everigo’s professional localisation service typically costs between €50 and €750, depending on the size of the product portfolio, the amount of content and the complexity of the marketing materials.

It is important to distinguish between translation and localisation. When entering a new market, simply translating your Hungarian webshop is not enough. Payment methods, delivery information, customer service communication, returns processes and even promotional messaging should all be adapted to local customer expectations.

3. Building the technical and financial foundations

International operations require the right webshop, payment and taxation infrastructure.

Registering a new local domain costs only around €5–10 per year. To manage different currencies cost-effectively, it may be worth opening an international account, such as Wise Business. The account opening fee is approximately €50, with monthly fees of around €7–10.

Registration for the EU’s One Stop Shop (OSS) system can cost between €0 and €200, depending on the accounting solution you choose, in addition to ongoing accounting fees.

From a technical perspective, it makes sense to build your system from the beginning in a way that allows additional countries to be added easily later.

The same applies to logistics integrations: if you need to develop and maintain a separate courier integration for every new country, the technical costs of international expansion can quickly multiply.

4. Smart cross-border logistics: Pactic Cross-border

Traditional international parcel delivery rates can quickly damage your conversion rate, while renting your own warehouse abroad creates substantial fixed costs. Pactic Cross-border provides an alternative approach.

You only need to deliver your parcels to Pactic’s hub in Hungary (or if you prefer we can offer a solution for the pick-ups as well). From there, Pactic consolidates the shipments and transports them in bulk to the destination country, where local delivery partners handle the final mile as domestic shipments.

This means that an online store can start testing foreign markets without immediately establishing its own warehouse or fulfilment infrastructure in each country. Orders can continue to be prepared in Hungary while local last-mile networks handle delivery in the destination market.

No need to contract with a separate courier in every country

One of the less visible costs of international expansion is selecting, contracting and technically integrating different courier companies.

If you want to sell in three to five countries, this can easily mean several separate integrations and operational processes.

With Pactic’s multi-carrier model, you can access multiple European markets and work with different local delivery partners through a single logistics connection. This means you don’t need to build an entirely new logistics setup every time you add another country.

The real cost savings start from 100 parcels per month. The Business package offers a 20% discount, increasing with shipment volume. At Pro level (200–499 parcels), the discount reaches 30%, while Enterprise customers (500–999 parcels) can receive discounts of up to 35% compared with individual international tariffs – helping shipping costs compete with domestic delivery rates in the destination market.

A local delivery experience – even abroad

In cross-border logistics, price is not the only factor that matters. Customers typically look for the delivery methods they are already familiar with in their own country.

Parcel lockers dominate in some markets, while home delivery or cash on delivery remains important in others.

One of the advantages of Pactic’s model is that last-mile services can be selected according to the characteristics of each local market. From the customer’s perspective, this can create a local delivery experience even when the webshop continues to fulfil orders from Hungary.

Returns are also part of a successful cross-border strategy

One of the biggest trust factors for international shoppers is knowing what happens if they want to return a product.

If customers need to pay for an expensive international shipment back to Hungary, this alone can discourage them from completing a purchase.

Pactic provides local return options in several markets, allowing webshops to incorporate returns into their cross-border operations alongside outbound deliveries. This can make the experience easier for customers while eliminating the need for merchants to establish a separate returns logistics solution in every country.

The most important advantage, however, is scalability.

Once your first international market is working, launching logistics in the next country does not necessarily require building another system from scratch. Pactic therefore provides more than an alternative to traditional international courier services – it offers a cross-border logistics infrastructure on which you can build your regional growth.

5. Providing native-language customer service

Recruiting an in-house customer service team speaking the local language can create a disproportionate cost at the beginning of your expansion.

At the same time, customer loyalty and effective returns management require local-language support.

Everigo’s outsourced native-language customer service solution has a one-time setup fee of €99, while dedicated support costs approximately €200–290 per month, depending on volume. This allows you to avoid the salary and employment costs associated with hiring full-time employees abroad.

Local customer service and the right logistics setup are particularly important when combined. Customers don’t care how many different service providers are working behind the scenes. What matters to them is knowing where their parcel is, when it will arrive and how they can return it if necessary.

6. Marketing and local visibility

In a new market, both trust and traffic need to be built from scratch.

Without paid advertising such as Google and Meta Ads, your webshop may struggle to gain visibility among local consumers. For a solid launch, you should budget at least €800 (approximately HUF 300,000) per month for paid advertising.

If you want to complement this with intensive SEO activities, PR articles or local influencers, the monthly budget will naturally be significantly higher.

The appropriate advertising budget can only really be estimated based on market research. It also depends on whether your existing team has the resources and expertise to handle marketing internally or whether you need external support.

Your logistics offer itself is also part of your marketing strategy. Competitive delivery prices, familiar local delivery methods, parcel lockers and pick-up points, and an easy returns process can all increase customer confidence and improve conversion rates.

For this reason, your marketing and logistics strategies should already be aligned before entering the new market.

Summary: How much capital do you actually need to get started?

Based on the costs above, launching an average Hungarian webshop in a new international market could look roughly like this:

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International expansion doesn’t necessarily require a warehouse abroad

This is perhaps one of the most important conclusions from the figures above: entering a foreign market does not have to begin with an investment worth tens of millions of forints.

Many webshops postpone international expansion because they assume that from day one they will need a local warehouse, separate courier contracts, a new logistics system and substantial infrastructure abroad.

With the Pactic Cross-border model, however, you can launch and gradually scale your international sales while continuing to operate from Hungary.

This allows you to test a market first, measure actual demand and then decide – based on real order volumes – when and where further investment makes sense.

This significantly reduces one of the biggest risks associated with market entry: you don’t need to commit to high fixed logistics costs in a country before you know how much demand actually exists for your products.

The goal is therefore not to build an entire foreign operation on day one. Instead, you can use the right combination of market research, localisation, marketing and scalable cross-border logistics to test your next market with controlled costs – and then invest more in the markets that prove they can deliver results.

With a well-structured, data-driven strategy, this initial investment of approximately €2,300 can, in many cases, pay for itself within the first 6–12 months. Choosing the right partners can help minimise the risks, which is why working with experienced professionals from the beginning can make a significant difference.

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