Canada and UK are US sellers’ strongest cross-border markets

Over a third of US on-line merchants are selling across borders (36%) and the majority have a dedicated business website (69%). Just over half of cross-border sellers (53%) and 40% of domestic-only sellers use online marketplaces – with eBay & Amazon being the most commonly used. These are some of the results published in the PayPal Cross-Border merchant Research 2016.

Furthermore, the survey discovered that roughly half of merchants’ websites have a mobile specific version (54%) and merchants are placing more importance on having solutions for smartphone than they are on tablet solutions. 1 in 3 merchants track which device shoppers are using, and from this it is clear that ‘traditional’ desktop/laptop purchases still have the largest share of sales, followed by smartphones.

Canada and the UK are US merchants’ strongest cross-border corridors, with Canada alone providing 41% of CBT revenue. Europe is the most accessed region outside North America and represents 25% of CBT revenue 10 countries together provide 77% of the CBT revenue 1 in 3 merchants who currently only sell domestically intend to start selling cross-border in the next year.

Continued Social media & search engine optimisation are the most popular methods for driving cross-border trafc For domestic-only sellers, the risk of fraud from foreign shoppers is the no.1 concern about CBT, and for all merchants the issue of shipping is a key concern Cross-border sellers believe shipping costs are the no.1 reason for foreign shoppers to abandon a potential online purchase.

Read the full report here

Text: PayPal