China & UK top in purchases from US online retailers
Source: www.fibre2fashion.com Date: 2014-04-18
Hamburg-based secondary research organization yStats.com reports in its new publication "Global Cross-Border B2C E-Commerce 2014" that the interconnectedness of the world through the Internet is providing opportunities for online merchants, payment processors, and delivery companies to grow apace with the growth of cross border online shopping.
The worldwide leaders in B2C E-Commerce exports are the USA, the UK, Germany, the Nordic nations, the Netherlands and France. Together their online retail cross-border exports are forecasted to top EUR 100 billion by 2020. Within these top countries, the most intensive cross-border B2C E-Commerce trade flow is between the USA and the UK.
The top six countries in online retail imports are the USA, the UK, Germany, Brazil, China and Australia. The largest importer of them all was China in 2013, followed by the USA. Put together, online shoppers from these markets are expected be purchasing several hundred billion EUR annually within a few years.
The leading cross-border E-Commerce companies have varying strategies to reach consumers worldwide. Amazon and eBay offer shipment to most countries with some restriction on items available for global delivery.
Net-a-Porter, iHerb and Zooplus sell worldwide from central locations, while Asos and Book Depository offer free worldwide shipments on their products. Others, such as Zalando and Glossybox sell only to markets where they have local operations.
While strategies vary, across all Internet vendors, the leading product categories in B2C E-Commerce are fashion, health and beauty products, and personal electronics.
Though the exact value estimates differ, the USA is undoubtedly one of the largest markets worldwide for cross-border B2C E-Commerce, both in terms of exports and imports. The countries most purchased from by online shoppers in the USA are the UK and China.
Online exports especially hit a peak each Cyber Weekend. In neighboring Canada, a third of online shoppers purchase from US websites and some also purchase from Asian websites, motivated by cheaper prices and wider product selection.
In the fast growing Latin American B2C E-Commerce market, cross-border online shopping plays a significant role. In countries where domestic B2C E-Commerce is underdeveloped such as Colombia, Paraguay and Venezuela the majority of online purchases are cross-border.
In Brazil, the number of cross-border online shoppers is forecasted to reach almost ten millions by 2018, with expenditure growing annually by almost a half. The number of online shoppers in Argentina purchasing from foreign websites doubled in 2013, however, the country's authorities placed regulatory restrictions on cross-border trade in January 2014.
