Cross-border online spending by Indian shoppers estimated to grow by 85%* in 2017 says PayPal Ipsos Report 2016
PayPal, the world’s leading open digital payments company and Ipsos today released the 3rd Annual Global Cross-Border Consumer Research 2016. As the world witnesses an online commerce revolution, the research maps the evolution of online commerce to examine the drivers, barriers and attitudes towards cross border online shopping. It also analyses the rationale behind the preferred modes of payment among online shoppers. Also included is an outlook of growth prospects for the Indian ecommerce sector in 2018.
The research evaluates the online and cross-border shopping behavior of over 28,000 consumers across 32 countries including 800 interviews in India.
“The internet has truly democratized cross border trade. The freelance economy has grown in India and a considerable number of Indians shop in the global marketplace. The PayPal Ipsos report clearly demonstrates that the trust in PayPal’s security, higher acceptance among merchants and quick processing, makes it a natural choice for cross-border payment. We have consistently offered unique and tailored solutions to our consumers in India. Our two-sided platform with features such as Seller and Buyer protection and Refunded Returns has helped us address most of the key barriers to cross-border shopping like safety and security, return processes and shipping issues faced by shoppers”, said Anupam Pahuja, Managing Director, PayPal India.
Online spending in the last 12 months:
The research highlights that the incidence of online adults who have shopped online in the last 12 months increased to 83% in 2016; Shopping on a dedicated shopping websites via an internet browser accounted for on average 53% of online spending made by online shoppers followed by shopping through dedicated shopping app (accounting for 29% of online spend) and shopping through social media sites (10%). 77% of online adults think that their overall amount of online spending will increase over the next 12 months. Convenience of shopping online emerged as the top reason selected for this increase (selected by 72% of those who say their online spend will increase) followed by the intent of saving (selected by 47%) and expecting shipping to become faster (40%).
One quarter (25%) of the online shoppers in India claim to have shopped from websites in other countries in the past 12 months. The research reveals that the top 3 most popular corridors for cross-border shopping were USA (14% of online shoppers have shopped from a website in the USA in the last 12 months). UK (6%) and China (5%). When asked if there were times of year when they shop more online from other countries than they would usually, 55% of Indian cross-border shoppers say they shop cross-border more than usual during Christmas and 53% say they shop more from other countries at Diwali.
The preferred device choices for cross-border purchases are led by large-screen devices – on average 56% of cross- border purchases made in the last 12 months by Indian cross-border shoppers were made on desktop, laptops or notebooks. followed by smartphones (accounting for 29% of cross-border purchases), and tablets (10% of cross-border purchases).
‘Cart abandonment’ is also a key issue on cross border shopping, with 51% of online shoppers claiming to have abandoned an online purchase from a website in another country. Reasons for cross-border cart abandonment include shipping charges being high (selected by 38% of online shoppers who have abandoned a cross-border online purchase), long delivery period (31%), expensive returns (26%) and having to pay using another currency (24%).
PayPal has emerged as the most popular payment method for making cross-border transactions by the Indian cross-border shoppers, with 64% of cross-border shoppers claiming to have used Paypal for a cross-border purchase in the past 12 months. Cross-border shoppers who prefer to use PayPal as their cross border payment method selected safer way to pay (selected by 60%), well-known, trusted brand (47%) and quick processing of payment (43%), as reasons for preferring to use PayPal for cross-border transactions.
Mobile spends on the rise
The research illustrates that the future clearly belongs to mobile for online shopping (inclusive of cross-border shopping) with mobile spends (spend via. smartphone and tablet) estimated to reach Rs. 4,16,600 crore by 2018 from 2,03,600 crore in 2016.
Entertainment, consumer electronics and household goods are estimated to be the highest growth categories for online spends in 2017
Total online spend in the entertainment category is forecast to grow by 56% in 2017 while the total online spend in consumer electronics and household goods category are both forecast to grow by 53% in 2017. Leisure and outdoor hobbies (50% growth forecast) and health & beauty (50% growth forecast) are also expected to be high growth categories for overall online sales.
Average cross-border online spends among Indians
Average cross-border spend per cross-border shopper, considering a population of approximately 13.8 million cross border shoppers in India, was estimated to be ~Rs.42,400 in 2016
More on Global Cross Border Consumer Research 2016 by PayPal and Ipsos
In addition to these India findings, more focused data is available for all 32 countries included in the research in addition to the global data.
On Behalf of PayPal, Ipsos interviewed a representative quota sample1 of c.800-2000 (28012 in total) adults (aged 18 or over2) who use an internet enabled device3 in each of 32 countries (UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Portugal, Russia, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Greece, Israel, UAE, Egypt, South Africa, Nigeria, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Chile, USA, Canada, India, China, Japan, Thailand & Singapore). Interviews were conducted online between 30th August and 5th October 2016.
Data was weighted in all countries to adjust for panel bias based on external trend data on incidence of online shoppers in each country.
India fieldwork was conducted 31st August and 9th September, among a sample of 800.
1 In most countries quotas were applied on age crossed with gender and region representative of online population. No region quota was applied in ZA, Singapore, RU & PE. In Egypt, UAE & Nigeria, no quotas were set but the survey was mailed out to a nationally representative of offline sample who were screened for internet usage
2 Aged 18-74 in all European countries
3Desktop computer/Laptop/ notebook computer/Tablet /Smartphone/Some other type of mobile phone/Electronic organizer / PDA with wireless voice and data features/Games console with Internet connectivity (e.g. Wii)