Cross-border online shopping brims with growth opportunities – report

By 2020, online retail cross-border exports in the US, the UK, Germany, the Nordic nations, the Netherlands and France, are expected to reach EUR 100 billion, the same source indicates. Within these top countries, the most significant cross-border B2C ecommerce trade flow is between the US and the UK. The top six countries in online retail imports are the US, the UK, Germany, Brazil, China and Australia, according to yStats.

The US is touted as one of the largest markets worldwide for cross-border B2C ecommerce, when it comes to both exports and imports. The countries most purchased from by online buyers in the US are the UK and China.

In the Latin American B2C ecommerce space, cross-border online shopping plays a significant role. In countries such as Colombia, Paraguay and Venezuela, where domestic B2C ecommerce is underdeveloped, the majority of online purchases are cross-border.

In Brazil, the number of cross-border online shoppers is predicted to reach nearly 10 millions by 2018, with expenditure increasing annually by almost a half. In 2013, the number of online shoppers in Argentina buying from foreign websites doubled, however, the countrys authorities imposed regulatory restrictions on cross-border trade in January 2014.

Cross-border B2C ecommerce is flourishing in Europe, backed by initiatives of the lawmakers in creating a single online retail infrastructure and regulation. More than a quarter of online buyers in the EU have made purchases from other EU countries, with this share being higher in the Euro area. The UK was the most popular destination for cross-border online shopping among European online shoppers purchasing abroad in 2013, followed by Germany and France.

The UK is among the biggest cross-border B2C ecommerce exporters globally, supported by the popularity of UK brands around the world and the wide use of the English language. On the side of imports, only a small double-digit share of online shoppers in the UK buy from online retailers in other European countries, while the US, China and Hong Kong are more popular destinations. In other Western European nations, cross-border online shopping from the UK, Germany and the US is popular in France, while also a quarter of online stores in France shipped internationally.

At a Eastern European level, cross-border online shopping is a growing trend in Russia. The cross-border B2C ecommerce sales of goods to Russia are expected to more than double in 2013, while traffic to top international ecommerce websites by Russian users almost quadrupled. Over 10% of online shoppers in Poland purchased from foreign online shops. The value of international ecommerce transactions made in Turkey reached over EUR 1 billion in 2013, growing by a third year-on-year.

In Asian-Pacific, Singapore had the highest estimated share of cross-border B2C ecommerce in 2013, followed by Malaysia. Consumers worldwide make cross-border purchases from Japan, while also close to a fifth of online shoppers in Japan buy products online abroad.

Cross-border B2C ecommerce in the Middle East and North Africa is growing by a high double-digit percentage number annually, supported by various services that assist shoppers in cross-border services. The US accounted for a third of the cross-border B2C ecommerce made by online shoppers in the MENA region.

Check out our Cross-border Ecommerce Research section here for more info on country-specific ecommerce facts & figures, preferred payment methods, risk and fraud, as well as ecommerce legislation & regulation for mature and emerging markets.