Online shopping in India has changed at multiple levels – its reformed, more seamless, secure – all because it has become ‘essential’ in this pandemic era. With lockdowns and fear of infection, consumers have taken to shopping from the comforts of their homes using their smartphones. According to the PayPal 2021 Borderless Commerce Report*, about 91% of online shopping was carried out via smartphones.
Online shopping has also increased for cross-border purchases from India and three-quarters of online shoppers plan to continue to shop across borders.
What has driven consumers to shop cross-border?
The mobile commerce market is evolving at a rapid pace which has opened more avenues for cross border shopping from India. The Borderless Commerce Report states that 40% of the Indian consumers shop cross-border in search of high-quality products and consumer electronics and clothing/apparel top the purchase list.
Technology has also been a key driver for cross-border shopping decisions as consumers shift to digital payments- cards and digital wallets. Cards represent about a third of all transactions however digital wallet adoption is growing even faster at 80% CAGR. Finally, special festivals like Diwali are major drivers for cross-border purchases- 77% of Indians order gifts for their loved ones from international websites.
Top markets and most preferred mode of payment
The report delineates around 49% of consumers shop cross-border, out of which, 33% of the orders are from the US, 10% from UK and 10% from China.
Most of the consumers avail store/retailer’s website, online and social media marketplaces to shop cross-border from these countries. Interestingly, PayPal is the most used (36%) and preferred (29%) way to pay for cross-border purchases for consumers in India, with respondents citing trust, security, and convenience as reasons for their preference.
Enabling conducive cross-border shopping
While the country has transitioned to digital shopping and with an increase in cross border transactions, it is imperative for the eCommerce companies to remain transparent in their communication. Nearly half of the online shoppers abandoned a purchase after realizing the website was in another country. In order to ensure credibility it is imperative for these platforms to be transparent about your location, while also emphasizing quality, authenticity, shipping costs, speed of delivery and safe payment methods.
*For more insights, please refer to the PayPal 2021 Borderless Commerce Report.