An Insight into Global Online Shopping Behaviour

With increasing Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) around the globe, international E-commerce has turned out to be a paramount multi-billion dollars revenue channel. No wonder, a large number of aspirant international online sellers are willing to be an active part of this flourishing industry while it is being cordially embraced by millions of enthusiastic buyers across the world. In order to identify global online shopping behavior, IPC released a survey report in 2016. The research was basically a quantitative analysis carried out on 24,000 online consumers spread over 26 countries.

Key Findings of Global E-commerce Consumer Preferences

As presented by the IPC survey report, a selection of the key findings of global online shopping behavior are enlisted as following:

Product Preference

Register Now The most widely bought cross-border product categories in 2016 were Clothing, Footwear & Apparel (comprising nearly 33%), Consumer Electronics (comprising nearly 21%), Books, Music & Media (comprising nearly 14%) and Health & Beauty (comprising nearly 13%). A gender-wise study reflected that women were more inclined towards purchasing Clothing, Footwear & Apparel than men (39% over 26%); men were mostly inclined towards purchasing Consumer Electronics than women (30% over 12%). The other cross-border product categories that were widely purchased were Jewellery & Watches (8%), Computers (7%), Sports & Leisure (7%), Home & Garden (6%), Household Appliances (6%), Toys (5%), Baby & Child (2%) etc.

Country Preference

The top most countries that accounted for most cross-border sales volume in 2016 were China (26%), US (16%), UK (15%) and Germany (15%). Also, France (5%), Japan (3%), Canada (3%), Australia (3%) and Netherlands (3%) were enlisted for generating impressive cross-border sales volume as well. While China remains one amongst the top three sources for all countries, US, UK, and Germany tend to cast a dominant impact on their immediate smaller neighbors.

Device Preference

While exploring the global online shopping behavior, IPC asked consumers about their most preferred devices for shopping. It was seen that laptops (41%) had the highest usage preference followed by desktops (36%); also, smartphones (14%) and tablets (8%) subsequently followed. Desktops were most likely preferred by consumers 55+ of age, tablets by consumers between 35-54 years of age and smartphones by younger consumers of 16-34 years of age. Laptops were equally preferred by consumers with no age difference.

Market Preference

On an overall scale of global eCommerce purchases, consumers mostly preferred international online marketplaces like Amazon (31%), eBay (23%), Alibaba (11%), Wish (4%), Zalando (3%) and so on. Amazon and eBay received a higher popularity amongst men than women; women showed a greater inclination for the other remaining marketplaces.

Payment Preference

When consumers were enquired of their favorite modes of payment, most stated their most preferred options to be Paypal (41%) or something equivalent, Credit Cards (33%), Debit Cards & Bank Transfers (18%). Also, Cash on Delivery (4%) and Pre-Paid Cards (2%) followed them soon after.

Delivery Preference

The most significant delivery locations preferred by consumers were at home (76%), post-office (8%), workplace (5%), retail outlet (2%), neighbor (1%). When asked about the importance of tracking cross-border items being purchased, the level was considered very high.

Conclusion

Global E-commerce is transforming the overall path to product purchase. As such, the widespread role of multi-channel selling is coming into picture day by day. The essence of using a number of platforms to bring a range of products before potential customers for unprecedented sales is gaining prominence. A multichannel sales strategist like Eunimart can provide helpful insights on global online shopping behavior for improvising overall sales and net profits. Image Source: Eunimart