Study: Asia Pacific leads mobile cross-border shopping

As retailers expand their operations beyond their domestic borders, many are finding new opportunities to connect with new shoppers.



This message was delivered in “PayPal Cross-Border Consumer Research 2016,” a report from PayPal and Ipsos, a study that investigated the online domestic and cross-border shopping habits of more than 28,000 consumers in 32 countries.



Data revealed that 37% of shoppers in the Asia Pacific make cross-border purchases on a mobile device, the majority of which are on a smartphone. In fact, 68% of all cross-border shoppers in the Asia Pacific region reported making a cross-border purchase on a smartphone in the past 12 months.



In China, the survey saw a marked increase in the shift to mobile purchasing between 2015 and 2016, with an average of 35% of cross-border purchases being made on a smartphone in 2016 vs. 27% in 2015. If the growth in Asia Pacific is an indication of a global shift to increased mobile cross-border shopping, there is a tremendous opportunity for merchants in Europe and North America, especially as more shoppers plan to increase their budgets, the study said.



For example, 64% of Internet users in China, 39% of users in Russia, and 26% of users in the U.K. claimed that their online spending will increase in the next 12 months. Among all shoppers interviewed across all countries, those predicting to increase their online shopping are influenced by the convenience of shopping online (76%), changes in disposable income (30%), faster shipping (35%) and cheaper shipping (27%), the study added.



“Selling internationally is a substantial opportunity for merchants around the globe to grow their business. At PayPal, we’ve seen our cross-border volume grow 38% in the last two years, $14 billion a quarter in Q3 2014 to $19 billion a quarter in Q3 2016,” said Melissa O’Malley, director, global initiatives at PayPal. “PayPal's mobile payment volume is also up 56% over last year, so we see the direct benefits merchants can reap by optimizing their mobile shopping experiences.”



China shows even more growth in relation to being an online shopping destination. For the first time in the survey’s three-year history, China is the most popular cross-border online shopping destination for global online shoppers (21% of all online shoppers interviewed claimed to have shopped cross-border from Chinese websites in the past 12 months), followed by the U.S. (17%) and U.K. (13%).



Regardless of where they hail from, a majority of shoppers want a good deal, as 76% of global consumers said better prices were why they shop in another country instead of where they live. Gaining access to items not available in their own country was important to 65%, while 46% are attracted to free shipping, and 44% said they are attracted to secure payment transactions, the study reported.



The survey also urged retailers to take note of these factors to motivate a shopper who may have never shopped cross-border before, as a means of converting them.