e-Commerce: One in Three Shop on Overseas Sites

A love for the latest clothes and beauty products is driving internet users in six emerging eCommerce markets in Asia Pacific to seek their fashion fixes on overseas shopping websites, according to the 2010 Visa eCommerce Consumer Monitor.

Of the 3,156 people surveyed from mainland China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand in the third quarter of last year, one in three (32%) said they had shopped on overseas websites in the past 12 months. Clothes and shoes (25%) were the most popular items purchased followed by cosmetics and perfumes (18%), airline tickets (18%) and books (14%).

69% of those who had shopped on an overseas site before said they had done so because the products and services they wanted were not available locally while 34% said it was because they felt these sites offered a wider selection of goods. 31% felt the goods they wanted to purchase were more cheaply priced on overseas sites, while 25% said that these sites offered better discounts.

Paul Jung, Head of eCommerce for international markets at Visa, said, “Even more people would consider buying from overseas websites except for the fact that many of these retailers do not ship overseas. Visa cardholders can get around this by signing up with our online shopping service partners Borderlinx and OneNow.com that enable cardholders to purchase from thousands of US and UK-based retail stores."

Borderlinx and Comgateway’s OneNow.com are eCommerce shopping enablement services for consumers and merchants. They provide shoppers with a personalized overseas shipping address to which retailers can mail purchased items. They then arrange for these items to be delivered to the cardholder's home country by international courier.

With the Borderlinx service, Visa cardholders in Australia, Bahrain, Canada, mainland China, Kuwait, New Zealand, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia and UAE can enjoy shopping at thousands of online merchants from the U.S. and the U.K.

The OneNow.com service is available to Visa cardholders in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan and provides access to U.S.-based online stores. Registration for both services is free for Visa cardholders.

According to the survey, US-based websites commanded the largest share of cross-border business across all markets with the exception of mainland China where consumers preferred Hong Kong shopping sites. 90% of respondents who had shopped overseas in the past twelve months said they had made a purchase from a US-based website at least once.

43% of respondents who had only shopped on local websites said they would not purchase from an overseas site because they didn’t want to incur additional shipping charges.

 “Using an online shopping service like Borderlinx and OneNow.com allows shoppers who make purchases from multiple merchants to combine their purchases into a single package and potentially save on shipping charges,” added Jung.

According to the 2010 Visa eCommerce Consumer Monitor the most popular items purchased from within the six markets In the past 12 monthswere airlines/airline tickets (US$316), travel accommodation (US$159), clothes and shoes (US$62), health care products (US$62) and cosmetics / perfume (US$58).

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