European executives plan to expand e-commerce business

The Payment Management Perspectives study released by CyberSource, conducted among European executives, revealed that 86% of respondents are planning to increase focus on expanding their e-commerce business into new markets in 2014. Emerging economies represent a significant opportunity, with their plentiful active online shoppers, high mobile usage, and consumer potential. However, executives cite that growth inhibitors,including inconsistent data privacy and security standards, market uncertainty and insight, as well as a need for confident fraud management,must be addressed.

Research reveals that more than one third (35%) of the senior executives surveyed see expansion into emerging economies, including markets such as Russia, Brazil and China, as one of the most effective ways to grow their e-commerce sales in the coming years. This compares with 22% when looking at more established markets, such as North America and Western Europe. Four in 10 respondents cite knowing where to expand (43%) and prioritising which markets to expand in to first (41%) as a significant or major challenge.

More than half of senior executives (58%) feel that sales in emerging economies will be driven by the rapid adoption of mobile commerce – a finding echoed by other studies that show high levels of consumer mobile adoption in emerging markets. However, an overwhelming 87% of respondents see consumer concerns about data privacy and payment security as a barrier to their e-commerce expansion.

In addition, 60% of executives perceive the risk of fraud to be higher for orders originating from abroad, whilst over half (51%) of senior executives feel that delays in recouping the cost of expanding into new markets could present a significant or major challenge to the growth of their e-commerce operations in 2014.

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.