American online shoppers' destination for overseas shopping: China ranks second

With the transnational development of Amazon and e-commerce giants in various countries, cross-border online shopping has become more and more common, especially among many Chinese online shoppers, who have begun to commission overseas purchasing. The recent favorable policies will also enable Chinese netizens to shop directly on Amazon in the United States.

What level and status has global cross-border e-commerce developed to?

Recently, mobile payment company PayPal released a global cross-border online shopping market report commissioned by Nielsen, which showed that the most popular categories of cross-border online shopping are clothing, shoes and hats, followed by health and beauty products. In addition, in 2013, the number of overseas shoppers in mainland China reached 18 million.

Nielsen's report mainly surveyed the following six markets: the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, China and Australia, and a total of 6,000 consumers who had made cross-border online purchases in the past year were surveyed.

The report said that in the six countries mentioned above, the number of people making cross-border online purchases reached 94 million, and their total online shopping expenditure this year reached US$105 billion.

According to traditional views, people shop online abroad in the hope of getting a cheaper price for the same product. However, the PayPal report shows that only a quarter of cross-border online shoppers pursue price advantages, while more cross-border online shoppers hope to find rarer products on foreign websites and seek a more unique online shopping experience.

According to surveys in the above six countries, the most popular categories of goods for cross-border online shopping are clothing and shoes, beauty and health care, personal consumer electronics, computer hardware, jewelry and watches, and home appliances.

In the United States, China and Germany, Internet users prefer to purchase health and beauty products from foreign websites because “online international markets” can better meet their needs than local shopping malls.

How do cross-border online shoppers pay? The survey shows that the most popular cross-border payment method is PayPal, with a coverage rate of over 80%. PayPal's coverage rate is twice as high as the second-ranked payment method.

It is said that security is people's first choice when choosing payment tools for cross-border online shopping.

The PayPal report also reveals some aspects of China's overseas shoppers. It is estimated that in 2013, the number of Chinese overseas shoppers reached 18 million, and their overseas shopping expenditure reached 213.6 billion yuan. It is predicted that by 2018, the number of Chinese overseas shoppers will reach 35.6 million, and the scale of overseas shopping will reach 1 trillion yuan.

According to relevant data, in 2013, the scale of domestic online shopping expenditure in China was 1.85 trillion yuan. In comparison, Chinese netizens' overseas online shopping expenditure accounted for about 10% of domestic online shopping expenditure.

The main categories of goods purchased overseas by Chinese online shoppers and the purchase amounts in the past 12 months are: clothing, shoes and hats (22 billion yuan), medical care and beauty (17.6 billion yuan), computer hardware (13.5 billion yuan), jewelry and watches (13.1 billion yuan), and personal consumer electronic devices (12.9 billion yuan).

What are the overseas online shopping destinations for Chinese overseas shoppers? The survey shows that the most popular destinations are American websites (coverage rate 84%), Hong Kong, China (58%), Japan (52%), the United Kingdom (43%), and Australia (39%).

In addition, it is interesting that China has become the second largest destination country for American cross-border online shoppers, with a coverage rate of 39%. The first place in the United States is the United Kingdom (49%), the third place is Canada (34%), followed by Hong Kong, China and Australia.

This report divides the world's cross-border online shoppers into five types: the "brave adventurer type" (who likes to explore and discover new products on different overseas online shopping websites), the "efficient explorer type" (busy people who buy products from overseas websites they trust for a long time), the "value seeker type" (who pays attention to the latest popular product trends through online shopping, and uses various tools to compare the price-performance ratio of products on various websites), the "safety seeker type" (who is very cautious about online shopping, only buys from trusted websites, and generally requires return guarantees), and the "low-price hunter type" (who rarely shop overseas online, but will act decisively once they see affordable products).

In addition, like online shopping, the development trend of overseas online shopping will also be mobile. The report shows that the scale of mobile cross-border online shopping in the above six countries last year was US$36.4 billion, accounting for one-third of all cross-border online shopping.

The report predicts that by 2018, the scale of cross-border mobile shopping will triple to more than $100 billion.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.