UK high street retailer plans to extend its ecommerce brand

According to a recent ShopSafe report, the U.K. high street retailer John Lewis plans to extend its online payment gateway offering worldwide.

As it stands, the ecommerce site offers products to consumers in Germany, France, Italy and other Western European countries. This fall, John Lewis will extend its reach to New Zealand, South Africa and Singapore.

"One group of people most likely to take full advantage of John Lewis' new ecommerce strategy is expats, who have grown up with the brand in the U.K., but moved abroad and found it impossible to enjoy the same service and experience," wrote ShopSafe's Chris Bradshaw.

Many other companies may follow the strategy by John Lewis and extend their ecommerce brand, since the European Union supports this type of move to help jump-start economies, the report stated.

Although John Lewis is a high street retailer looking to expand its ecommerce brand, many U.K. shops are finding difficulty competing with internet shopping. According to a recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Local Data Company, 20 shops are closing daily as more consumers purchase products through websites.