Trends in Global Cross-Border eCommerce

On global average, 26% of online shoppers turning to eCommerce destinations based outside their home countries purchase from Amazon – this is what the recent update of the Cross-Border E-Commerce Shopper Survey 2021 conducted and published by the International Post Corporation found out. This makes Amazon the number one address globally for cross-border online shoppers. Chinese eCommerce giant Alibaba also attracts a substantial share of international online shoppers, namely 19%. But China seems to have several other popular eCommerce stores for shoppers from around the world. In fact, China as a country is the number one most popular destination for cross-border eCommerce customers worldwide: 35% of respondents interviewed by IPC made their last cross-border purchase from a provider based in China. Chinese online retailers are especially popular among customers in Russia, where 82% of cross-border shoppers turn to a Chinese address, and other Eastern European countries. But also some Latin American countries and Spain reach percentages above 50%. How is cross-border eCommerce going to develop? Are cross-border shoppers planning to keep their habits? The IPC survey reveals an interesting trend:

Although cross-border eCommerce brings along several advantages, like cheaper prices or a greater product variety, many cross-border online shoppers across the globe are apparently planning to reduce their shopping activities in foreign countries. When asked as to what extent they were planning to buy more or less online from a selection of countries on a scale from 1 to 7 with 1 meaning “much less” and 7 meaning “much more”, only 6% chose a number between 1 and 3 regarding domestic purchases. Another 5% chose “don’t know” and 15% chose 4, meaning no change in their domestic shopping behavior. This means that, on the other hand, 74% or almost three in four cross-border shoppers plan to make more domestic purchases in the future. 27% chose 7 on the scale – meaning that they plan to buy much more from domestic providers in the future. In general, people seem to plan to make more local purchases – as neighbouring countries also reach relatively high percentages on the “plan to buy more in the future”-side of the scale. Numbers 5 to 7 on the scale together reach 58%. As far as the great exporting nations U.S. and China are considered, only around 40% of cross-border shoppers are planning to increase the number of online purchases from each of these countries. With 21% and 19% choosing 4 on the scale, respectively, around one in five cross-border shoppers seem indifferent as to whether they intend to buy more or less from eCommerce players based in the U.S. or China. The UK registered the lowest shares of online shoppers who plan to make more purchases from online stores based there – but with 21% respectively 10%, a comparably high number of people also chose the middle number 4 on the scale or the answer “don’t know”. Brexit might be a factor of uncertainty for consumers in this respect.