The average cross-border consumer spends twice as much as domestic consumers

Research from PayPal and Ipsos shows that cross-border trade is now a powerful driving force for the global economy. Currently, more than 10% of online shopping is cross-border shopping, and the average expenditure of cross-border shopping consumers is about twice that of domestic shopping consumers.

A recent report by the Multichannel Retailer website said: Cross-border shopping is most popular in Austria, where 83% of online shoppers have shopped cross-border, followed by Israel (82%) and Australia (75%). In contrast, the cross-border purchase rate of Chinese consumers is relatively low, with only 26% of Chinese online shoppers saying they have had cross-border online shopping experience, lower than the United States (30%) and Poland (35%).

However, China may soon become a larger market for international trade. 52% of Chinese online shoppers said they planned to start or increase their cross-border online shopping in the new year, ranking behind Mexico (59%) and Russia (54%).

Cross-border consumers are most concerned about shipping costs. Among consumers who have made cross-border purchases in the past 12 months, 51% said that expensive shipping costs often discourage them from cross-border online shopping. Similarly, among all online shoppers, 47% said that if free shipping is available, they would prefer to buy things from other countries, and 51% of adult online users said that free shipping or free shipping returns are "must".