Just in time for selling into the holiday season (and beyond!), we’re excited to release our
second global cross-border commerce report, revealing new opportunities and best practices for merchants to expand their cross-border sales and discover new revenue opportunities abroad.
The research, conducted in partnership with Ipsos
[1], investigated the online and cross-border shopping habits of over 23,200 consumers in 29 countries, uncovering valuable insights about how online commerce – and specifically cross-border commerce – is evolving, how and why consumers shop online across borders, and how consumers pay for cross-border transactions.
This year’s survey findings encompass both the key questions last year’s
report examined (including top product purchases, top cross-border corridors, devices used to buy online, drivers and barriers to cross-border shopping etc.) plus new topics, including ways of accessing websites in other countries, reasons for purchase abandonment, and the incidence and frequency of cross-border returns.
The report is rich with crucial information for merchants, and we encourage you to read it in full. Here are just a few of the noteworthy insights:
- Mobile commerce is taking off across the globe: Nigerians are leading the charge in mobile shopping; with nearly 37.8 percent of their online spend was conducted via smartphone (that’s 3x the global average). They are followed by China (33.6 percent) and UAE (30.5 percent).
- Sensitivities to shipping and costs: Nearly three quarters (73 percent) of global shoppers cite better pricing as a reason to make an international purchase, yet 47 percent report that shipping costs are a barrier for shopping internationally. (Of note: India, one of the top US export markets, reported the highest rate of returns at 42 percent.) Good news for merchants: PayPal offers free return shipping programs to users in the United States and 40 other countries, including Australia, France, Italy, and Spain.
- The power and importance of SEO: When asked how they find international sites, more than half (58 percent) of those who have shopped cross-border in the last 12 months said they go directly to the website they have used in the past. Similarly, 40 percent go directly to the websites they know the address for, followed by 36 percent citing they go to sites recommended by friends and family members
- Clothing and apparel reign supreme: As with last year, clothing/apparel, footwear, and accessories continue to be the most sought after item for cross-border shoppers, making up 60 percent of online purchases.
As a leading global payments processor, PayPal helps businesses both domestically and abroad access news sales opportunities in the ever-expanding global marketplace. In addition to offering the latest research insights, we actively provide our merchants with sales tools such as
PayPal PassPort, exposure to new selling opportunities such as our China
Singles Day sales platform, and resources such as our comprehensive eBooks “
How to Sell Internationally” and “
Selling Into China” to help attract new businesses overseas.
The advancement of technology is helping to open up commerce opportunities for everyone – across borders, anywhere, anytime and via any device. It’s never been a more exciting (or more favorable!) time to grow your global sales.
Read the full report and visit PayPal PassPort today to learn more about selling internationally.
[1] On Behalf of PayPal, Ipsos interviewed a representative quota sample of c.800 (23,354 in total) adults (aged 18 or over) who own and/or use an internet enabled device* in each of 29 countries (UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Turkey, Russia, Israel, UAE, USA, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, India, China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt). Interviews were conducted online between 17th September and 28th October 2015.