62 percent of Brazilians use smartphones to make international online purchases

The survey found that mobile phones were the preferred device for 62% of respondents when making international purchases in 2018. The research “Beyond Borders: The Cross-Border Consumption in Brazil” also shows that paying with instalments is a preference of the Brazilian consumer: 4 out of 5 consumers choose instalments in purchases over USD 48. The more expensive the product, the greater the tendency to split the total amount into instalments.

The survey was conducted in partnership with Opinion Box, and the poll interviewed about 3,000 consumers of international ecommerce websites and digital services in all the Brazilian states, between 19 August and 3 September 2019. All of them made at least one international purchase in the last twelve months.

For consumers with lower income, smartphones appear as the only buying channel, surpassing desktop access. Amongst consumers who do not have a bank account, for example, the preference for the smartphone reaches 76.5%. Transactions are made via both the application and ecommerce websites. Half of the respondents stated that the frequency with which they shop from international ecommerce websites has increased since 2018 thanks to lower prices, which were quoted by 66.8% of consumers, and thanks to good experiences with previous purchases, mentioned by 55.8% of them.

Respondents were also asked about the use of digital services. Netflix is the most popular of them amongst Brazilians: 68% of respondents are subscribers. Second in popularity are ride-hailing apps such as Uber, with 60%. In ranked order, Spotify is third (29%), then Deezer (13%), and finally HBO Go and Amazon Prime (8% each). The popularity of these services is apparent amongst all socioeconomic consumer profiles: there is no significant difference between those with or without bank accounts in this respect.

In terms of payment options, the credit card is the most used mean for international purchases by Brazilians (69%), but the boleto is close behind in second place, with a 51% of preference. In addition, more than half of the consumers who used the boleto have a credit card (53%).