Cross-border shoppers spend nearly twice as much as domestic shoppers: report

The research also reveals that cross-border shopping is most prominent in Austria, where 83% of online consumers shop internationally, Israel (82%) and Australia (75%). Conversely, international shopping is relatively rare in China, where only 26% of online shoppers reported making international purchases, the US (30%) and Poland (35%).

China may soon become a bigger market for international trade, the same source indicates. 52% of Chinese online consumers have revealed plans to begin shopping cross-border or increase their cross-border shopping over the next 12 months, which places China as the third country with the largest projected growth, after Mexico (59%) and Russia (54%).

Clothing and footwear is the most popular product category for cross-border shoppers, representing 39% of online cross-border purchases. Additionally, it is consistently the dominant category across every individual region: North America (33%), Latin America (47%), Middle East (47%), Western Europe (33%), Nordics (36%), Central and Eastern Europe (50%) and Asia Pacific (43%).

Delivery cost is one of the main factors which cross-border shoppers take into account. According to the study, 51% of those who have shopped cross-borders in the past 12 months say that delivery costs prevent them from making purchases from another country more often. Similarly, 47% of all online shoppers say that free shipping would make them more likely to buy from another country and 51% of all adult internet users say that free shipping or postage for returns is a “must have.”

On behalf of PayPal, Ipsos interviewed a representative quota sample of 17,519 adults (aged 18 or over) who own and/or use an internet enabled device in 22 countries (UK, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Poland, Turkey, Russia, Israel, UAE, USA, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, China, Australia). Interviews were conducted online between 9th September and 3rd November 2014.