International Post Corporation (IPC), a cooperative association of 24 national postal services, has released the results of its latest survey into cross-border shopping habits and experiences.
The IPC Online Shopper Survey has shown that 84% of cross-border online shoppers were satisfied with their delivery experience. It also showed that free shipping was offered to 59% of cross-border customers.
Out of more than 4,000 respondents, IPC used 240 consumers, reflective of age and gender, from 17 different countries. This included Austria, Australia, China, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, and the USA. The survey only included respondents who had shopped cross-border at least once in the four months leading up to the respondent cut-off date of October 2015.
Herbert-Michael Zapf, president and CEO of IPC, said, “This survey undertaken in 17 global markets provides us with valuable insights to help postal operators understand and meet the evolving needs for cross-border e-commerce, and will therefore be repeated annually.
“Cross-border is continuously growing and for this to continue it is important for postal operators to understand consumers’ behavior in order to meet their need for more convenience and to remove remaining obstacles for consumers to embrace cross-border e-commerce.”
Results from the survey showed that 80% of cross-border online shoppers bought goods from China (29%), the UK (19%), Germany (14%), the USA (13%) and France (5%). Other results showed that globally, 77% of shoppers prefer to use a PC to make a cross-border purchase where as 53% of respondents in China preferred to use a smartphone or tablet computer.
When looking at the value of the goods bought by cross-border online shoppers, the majority (59%) were between 10 (US$11) and 100 (US$109) on average. However, in China the average value of goods purchased was considerably higher with 65% between 101 (US$110) and 300 (US$328).
February 3, 2016
