According to research, 25% of online shoppers surveyed report purchasing from US-based websites in the last 12 months*. The next most popular countries are China (19% of online shoppers have purchased from Chinese websites) and the UK (14%).
However, US shoppers infrequently shop beyond their own borders. While among all respondents surveyed around the world, 50% of online shoppers report making purchases from a website in another country in the last 12 months, only 22% of US online shoppers have done so. Of the 29 countries involved in the study, only Japan has a lower volume of cross-border shoppers, namely at 12%.
No shortage of attention has been paid to the growing consumer class’ buying power in China as more enter the global online ecommerce market. The 2015 findings support the growth trend: 35% of online shoppers claim to have shopped cross-border in 2015, as compared to 26% in 2014. China’s overall online shopping population saw modest growth (81% of online adults report having shopped online in the last 12 months in 2015, as compared to 80% in 2014), the same source indicates.
Ireland, Austria and Israel are the most active cross-border shoppers with 86%, 85% and 79% respectively of online shoppers having made a cross-border purchase in the past 12 months.
Nigeria, China and UAE are mobile-savvy
Among all consumers surveyed around the world, 16% of their online spending was made via smartphone. Nigerians nearly triple this: on average, those online shoppers estimate that 37.8 % of their online spending in the last 12 months was conducted via smartphone, followed by China (34%) and UAE (31%).
The opportunity for mobile spending growth is highest in France, The Netherlands and Argentina: on average, those online shoppers respectively estimate that 7%, 7% and 9% of their online spending is made via smartphone.
Cross-border shoppers consider costThe cost of international goods is a consideration that both motivates and deters global purchases in 2015, according to the PayPal research. Nearly three quarters of all cross-border shoppers surveyed mention better prices as the reason to make purchases cross-border rather than domestically, followed by notions of access to items not available in their own country (cited by 67% of cross-border shoppers) and discovering new and interesting products (58%).
In tone with the 2014 survey findings, shipping cost is of paramount importance to cross-border shoppers. Almost half (47%) of online shoppers claim that delivery costs deter them from making international purchases (or making them more often). At the same time, half of all online shoppers say that free shipping would make them more likely to buy from a website in another country. Also, shipping cost is the top reason for abandoning an online purchase from a website in another country, cited by 43% of online shoppers who have abandoned a cross-border purchase.
On behalf of PayPal, Ipsos interviewed a representative quota sample of 23,354 adults in total (aged 18 or over) who own and/or use an internet enabled device in 29 countries (UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Turkey, Russia, Israel, UAE, US, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, India, China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt).
Ipsos is a global independent market research company and a member of the MRS. This research was carried out according to MRS code of conduct.
*Note: Interviews were conducted online between 17th September and 28th October 2015.
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