Cross-border growth
BrainGain: From a Garage Business to More Than 30 Countries
How BrainGain developed a global direct business serving customers in more than 30 countries.
Reviewed August 2026
Business context
BrainGain grew from a small Australian sports-nutrition business into an international direct brand.
The challenge
Serving many countries requires consistent product information, payment, delivery and support while preserving a focused operating model.
What changed
The case describes using Shopify to run the online store and support cross-border reach as the brand expanded.
Reported outcomes
Shopify reports 45% online-store GMV growth, 35% online-order growth, 7.7% average order value growth and more than 100,000 customers across over 30 countries.
What another brand can test
Prioritise countries by demand and contribution, then validate local payment and delivery before adding broader acquisition. Track market-specific performance rather than one global average.
Limits
BrainGain’s product, community and brand trajectory are specific. Geographic reach alone does not show profitability in each market.
Application checklist
- Confirm the reported metric and time period in the original source
- Identify the operating mechanism behind the result
- Build a baseline using your own definitions
- Run a limited test with a named owner and stop condition
- Compare contribution, service and customer outcomes—not revenue alone
Original source
This independent analysis is based on Shopify’s public case study about BrainGain.
Read the Shopify case study: BrainGainUse the evidence carefully