The very nature of intangible, software-based, downloadable content means that it can be easily sold to customers around the globe at negligible extra cost to the merchant: there’s no inventory to maintain, no warehouse facilities required and no shipping costs incurred. 

In total, 69% of digital goods merchants accept online orders from outside the UK (meaning that when fulfilled, the item ordered is downloaded in a country outside the UK), compared to 59% for physical good retailers. Not surprisingly, digital goods merchants report a much higher percentage of international web orders: an average of 35% compared to physical goods merchants at 17%. Chart 1 highlights the most popular countries for international order acceptance, as well as the differences between digital content businesses and the overall average across all merchants surveyed in the wider UK fraud survey.