Photo: Courtesy of PayPal

On behalf of PayPal, Ipsos interviewed in 29 countries [1] a representative quota sample of adults (aged 18 or over) who own and/or use an internet enabled device. The research [2] investigated the online and cross-border shopping habits of consumers.

China sees big jump in global buying

The report confirms that China’s consumer class is massively entering the global online ecommerce market. About 35 percent of Chinese online shoppers claim to have shopped cross-border in 2015, vs. 26 percent in 2014, while China’s overall online shopping population saw modest growth (81 percent of online adults report having shopped online in the last 12 months in 2015, vs. 80 percent in 2014).

US merchants lead the way but not US buyers

A full 25 percent of online shoppers said they from US-based websites in the last 12 months. The next most popular countries are China (19 percent of online shoppers have purchased from Chinese sites) and the UK (14 percent).

However, American shoppers infrequently shop beyond their own borders. While among all respondents surveyed around the world, 50 percent of online shoppers report making purchases from a website in another country in the last 12 months, only 22 percent of American online shoppers have done so. Of the 29 countries surveyed only Japan has a lower volume of cross-border shoppers, at 12 percent. On the contrary, Ireland, Austria and Israel are the most active cross-border shoppers with 86 percent, 85 percent and 79 percent respectively of online shoppers having made a cross-border purchase in the past 12 months.

Cross-border shoppers consider cost

Cost is a consideration that both motivates and deters global purchases in 2015.

Nearly three quarters (73 percent) of all cross-border shoppers surveyed cite 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 (selected by 67 percent of cross-border shoppers) and discovering new and interesting products (58 percent).

Shipping cost is of paramount importance to cross-border shoppers. Almost half (47 percent) of online shoppers say 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.

Shipping cost is the top reason for abandoning an online purchase from a website in another country, cited by 43 percent of online shoppers who have abandoned a cross-border purchase.

Asian online shoppers most interested in cosmetics

In most regions, clothing and apparel is the most popular category for cross-border purchases. Travel & transportation, and Consumer Electronics, as well as Entertainment & Education usually rank 2nd or 3rd. Asia-Pacific is the region that stands out for its high interest in cosmetics and beauty products that are purchased across the borders by placing this category in second place.

Source: PayPal