PayPal: More Chinese Online Shoppers Buy Cross-Border

Chinese consumer class’ buying power has been on the rise, with one-third of online shoppers having bought cross-border this year, according to the second global cross-border commerce report by PayPal and Ipsos.

The annual report, which looked into the cross-border and online shopping habits of over 23,200 consumers in 29 markets, discovered new opportunities for merchants to grow their international sales.

The study found that 35 percent of Chinese online shoppers had bought from foreign-based websites this year, up from 26 percent last year.

US products remained popular among international buyers, with 25 percent of online shoppers having purchased from US-based sites in the past year.

China and the UK rounded up the three most popular markets with 19 percent and 14 percent, respectively.

American shoppers were not big fans of foreign products with just 22­­­­ percent of them having bought from a website in another country in the past 12 months, said the report.

Japan also had a lower volume of cross-border online shoppers at 12 percent.

The most active cross-border online shoppers were from Ireland, Austria and Israel, with 86 percent, 85 percent and 79 percent, respectively.

The study also found that 16 percent of online spending was carried out through a smartphone. Nigeria, China and the UAE had the highest percentage of smartphone usage for online purchases at 37.8 percent, 34 percent and 31 percent, respectively.

France, the Netherlands and Argentina had the highest chance for mobile spending growth, the study noted.

When it comes to what affects cross-border shopping, study participants cited the cost of international products, availability of products in their own country and shipping cost.

Melissa O’Malley, director, global merchant and cross-border trade initiatives at PayPal, commented, “By identifying the purchasing habits of global consumers, our research allows businesses to harness new trade opportunities around the world. In addition to business insights, we are also actively providing our merchants with free tools and resources such as our comprehensive eBooks, ‘How to Sell Internationally’ and ‘Selling Into China’ as well as PayPal PassPort to help them gain more business overseas.”