Survey – Cross-border shoppers double spend of domestic shoppers

San Jose, Calif. - Cross-border shoppers (those for whom more than 10% of their online spend is cross-border), spend approximately twice as much as consumers who only shop domestically. New research from PayPal and Ipsos, which investigated the online and cross-border shopping habits of more than 17,500 consumers in 22 countries, shows 30% of U.S. online consumers shop across borders.



However, China may soon become a bigger market for international trade. Fifty-two% of Chinese online consumers said they plan to begin shopping cross-border or increase their cross-border shopping in the next 12 months, giving China the third-largest projected growth, behind

Clothing and footwear are the most sought-after goods for cross-border shoppers, representing 39% of online cross-border purchases, including 33% in North America.



Overall, consumer electronics is the second most popular category, at 26% of all online cross-border purchases, but fifth in North America. As for country of origin, U.S. and Chinese goods are the most popular overall, representing 26 and 18% of all online cross-border purchases, respectively. However, regional preferences vary. North America, Latin America, the Nordics and the Middle East all prefer American goods, while Western European cross-border shopping is dominated by German merchandise, and Central and Eastern European consumers most often purchase from China.



Shipping cost is of paramount importance to cross-border shoppers. More than half (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.”