15% of UK shoppers buy cross-border every week

UK shoppers increasingly pick foreign online stores. Source: shutterstock.com

According to Ecommerce?News, UK consumers are increasingly turning to foreign retailers when they are shopping online. Currently, over a third of UK shoppers are buying cross-border regularly, with 15% making an online purchase overseas at least once a week.

This is shown by?a survey, conducted by Whistl among 2,000 Brits. It’s mostly the price that drives UK shoppers to order their products at foreign online stores; 55% of Brits say this is the most important factor when shopping online.

Of course, there are also downsides to ordering from abroad. Extended delivery times (28%), lack of brand recognition (21%), import costs (20%) and paying in foreign currency (11%) are the most-called factors that dissuade British consumers from shopping abroad.

It’s mostly younger people who don’t stay close to the national e-commerce market, as over half of 25-34-year-olds shop with a foreign retailer at least once a month. One in ten do this every day. The top five of international e-commerce websites for British consumers are Aliexpress, Dealextreme, Borderfree, Macy’s and Newegg. So it’s clear that China and the US have the monopoly on UK cross-border shoppers.

The study also shows that 81% of British online business offer overseas delivery options: 37% offer European delivery options and 44% offer worldwide delivery. This also means that 19% of British online businesses are missing out on global sales opportunities because they limit themselves to UK-only delivery.

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