Not all countries are created equal in cross-border ecommerce: report

The quarterly X-Border Payments Optimization Index, released by PYMNTS.com and Digital River, a global provider of Commerce-as-a-Service solutions, measures how prepared merchants are to deliver a seamless and localised ecommerce experience to online shoppers outside their own country.

According to the Index, US ecommerce sites scored an average of 64 out of 100 and excelled in online navigation, cost, payment and privacy attributes. China ranked a close second behind the US, scoring an average of 62 out of 100. China-based sites excelled at offering localised currencies, languages and shipping destinations. France takes the last spot in the Index, scoring an average of 49 out of 100. The French sites offered fewer language options and currencies and most of them required consumers to fit addresses into French-specific address fields, pay for shipping and create a user profile in order to purchase, the Index indicates.

Other highlights:
• 100% of the highest performing cross-border ecommerce websites offer global consumers free shipping and a mobile-optimised experience, while only 20% of the lowest 10 scoring websites offer free shipping and only 30% offer mobile-optimized experiences
• Top performing websites also offer consumers a variety of language, payment and currency options, as well as rewards, country-specific address fields and easy checkouts
• 80% of the top 10 scoring sites offer rewards and allow consumers to checkout in half as many pages as the 10 lowest scoring websites

The study evaluated 180 international online stores across nearly 60 attributes to determine merchant readiness to tap the USD 300 billion cross-border market. The Index rated more than 180 online stores on a scale of 1 (low) to 100 (high), across almost 60 attributes such as shopping experience, payment options, loyalty and reward programs, and website navigation. The online stores were from 10 countries, including Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, the UK and the US. While there is a significant global opportunity at stake, merchants only scored an average of 56, which means that most of their websites fail to make it easy for customers to complete cross-border purchases.