By Direct Link - With a population of a bit more than 5,5 million, Finland is the third country in the Nordic region in terms of population. It is also the only country with the Euro as its currency, making it a little easier for Finns to shop from other European countries.

Finnish e-commerce has historically lagged somewhat behind the other Nordic countries, despite the country´s very high level of digitalization. Finnish consumers in the older age groups have been more skeptical towards e-commerce than comparable age groups in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. However, during the Coronavirus pandemic, the online share of total retail sales has increased, and new consumer groups have hit the market.

Finnish online consumers are quite keen cross-border buyers. This can probably be linked to the fact that there have been comparatively few strong domestic brands. Their top destination is Germany, followed by China and Sweden when making cross-border purchases.

Finnish consumers are the least likely to have purchased products from marketplaces if we compare to the Nordic neighbors. As much as 39 percent of the Finns state that they have not bought from any marketplace during 2022. As mentioned earlier, they are fond of shopping from Germany so the total dominant among the marketplaces is Zalando, with 37 percent of the consumers having made purchases, followed by eBay at 18 percent and Amazon at 15 percent.

In most of the different e-commerce markets in Europe, home delivery is clearly the preferred option when it comes to delivery alternatives. This is not the case in Finland. Consumers here are the only ones who hold collect the item from a parcel locker as their number one preference.

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During the first year, the ING-Payvision partnership brought forward an exclusive blend of payments and banking products to the industry. Besides serving merchants across the globe with a data-driven, omnichannel payments platform, the combined proposition also integrates Internet of Things capabilities from both companies, such as FINN, into a wider fintech ecosystem. This empowers Payvision to accommodate any payment method: from traditional cards to Apple Pay, soon to be introduced by ING in the Netherlands, as well as invisible payment capabilities in the future. In 2018, the strategic focus was placed on serving mid-sized merchants in Belgium and the Netherlands, and large corporations with a global reach. During 2019, this is planned to be extended to all SME customers of ING.

“This first year of partnership involved a deep understanding and adjustment to each other’s business styles, and we all benefited from the creative, straightforward entrepreneurial spirit of Payvision coupled with the resourcefulness and the broader financial knowledge of ING,” said Mark Buitenhek, Global Head Transaction Services at ING Group.

Payvision’s speedy growth paired with the addition of its affiliate company, Acapture, and strategic partnership with ING brought forward the need to redefine its brand position in the payments industry. As part of the rebranding process, the Acapture platform was integrated under the new Payvision brand, uniting the payment solutions offered via Acapture with Payvision’s acquiring network.

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In 2018, food and beverage, e-commerce grocery, sales reached 4.75 billion US dollars on Amazon. It is the fastest growing segment for online retailers. According to Edge by Ascential, the most popular category within food/beverages, with a total sales of 140 million dollars, was ‘coffee’.

Jacob Porter, director of global marketing of Edge by Escential said: “Since the very beginning, coffee has been at the top of Amazon’s food chain. Not only does it sell much more than any other single product type in the grocery group, but it continues to grow by 40%-plus annually.”

It is expected that the online selling of groceries will reach 100 billion dollars by 2025. Amazon will maintain its position as market leader, and coffee is going to continue being a significant subcategory in this growth.

E-commerce grocery: coffee

The top three coffee-sellers on Amazon are Starbucks ($16.8 million), Keurig Dr. Pepper ($12.6 million) and Nestlé ($11.2 million). To join the game, Amazon has created a private label of coffee pads, “Solimo”. The label rose quickly after the launch, with approximately $60,000 in sales per week.

Youngevity International, a company trying to become a leader in online coffee retail, announced that its brand ‘CLR Roasters’ will start selling Café La Rica espresso and Josie’s Java House coffee. Amazon will handle the logistics, order fulfilment and customer support for this new company. The company is expecting to sell over 41 million pounds of coffee every year. This would generate an approximate revenue of 250 million dollars from 2019-2023.

Not only major players, but small businesses are profiting from the successful environment as well. Consumers frequently visit Amazon in order to discover new coffee brands with different roasting techniques, tasting notes and sourcing methods.

Amazon is the primary destination for coffee-related searches, according to OneSpace’s search data. These searches accounted for more than 60% of the search volume across top retailers. For example, in 2017, Death Wish Coffee generated 50% of its sales via Amazon.

Consumer spending (online as well as offline) made a significant jump due to the newly emerging idea of premium coffee being available everywhere. According to Michael Schaefer, Euromonitor global lead, food & beverage, most important product ideas and major trends come from coffee shops. By upselling (via online retailers such as Amazon) and online subscription services, coffee shops are establishing brand loyalty.

Schaefer said: “Successful coffee players will combine discovery, experience, long-term purchasing and rapid product innovation, all across a wide range of distribution points.”

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In the extensive study, ParcelLab looked at the shipping and delivery process of the top 100 UK online retailers. According to their findings, e-commerce companies are basically ignoring the customer once they have placed an order.

Delivery options at UK retailers

The UK E-Commerce Shipping Study 2019 shows that 94% of the top 100 online retailers do not offer their customers the opportunity to choose between delivery partners. In addition, there’s not much choice regarding delivery times. Although 72% of the most popular UK retailers offer express delivery, only 7% offers same-day delivery and just 42% offer weekend delivery. Only 25% of UK online retailers give customers the opportunity to pick a time slot for delivery.

Shipping costs

12% of UK retailers offer free shipping and 65 retailers offer free shipping when minimum order value is met. This minimum order value ranges between £10-£150. The UK based online retailers who do apply a shipping cost, have an average of £3.99 per shipment. After the customer has completed the order in the webshop, things become quiet. Most online retailers stop directly communicating with their customers and let customers check the order status themselves. Just 11% of the top 100 UK online retailers communicate with their customers during the shipping period. The other 89% of online retailers let the delivery carrier do the communication or just do not communicate any information regarding the delivery at all.

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Focus on m-commerce

JD.com will try to claim a place in the European market(s) and will focus on m-commerce in particular, according to EcommerceNews. This is mainstream in China already, and is still growing quickly in the European market(s). Besides this focus on m-commerce, JD.com is known for its great logistic service in China. In their home market, about 92% of all orders are delivered within 24 hours, which is far from common in a market like the Chinese.

Currently, JD.com is focusing on France, where it is intensively investing in the market. Afterwards, other European e-commerce countries like Germany, the UK, and the Netherlands are likely to follow.

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Author: Cheng Liem Li, CCO – Payvision & Acapture

Since 2014, Payvision has been running the biggest annual global survey on cross-border e-commerce in the industry. This in-depth research seeks the opinions of key players from all aspects of online retail, including merchants, service providers and analysts, to take the pulse of the sector and offer key, actionable statistics for ambitious retailers strategizing for the coming years. Here are the main takeaways from this year’s edition.

Cross-border e-commerce confidence high
Every year, the survey begins by asking respondents how much they agree with a key statement: Cross-border e-commerce has proven to be profitable. Last year, for the first time, the results showed a dip in confidence levels, with a 5% lower rate of agreement than in 2015.
This year, confidence is back with a bang. A record 50% agreed that cross-border e-commerce is profitable, while a very respectable 31% strongly agreed with the statement.
Why the surge in optimism? Well, firstly, there is the China question. After Q1 2016’s surprise slowdown in growth rates, the Chinese economy stabilized and went on to record stronger year-on-year growth in the first two quarters of 2017. Also, the results suggest that merchants have experienced success in their omnichannel, m-commerce and in-store operations over the last 12 months.
In fact, the compound annual growth rate predicted for cross-border e-commerce over the next three years is now 17%, whereas it stands at just 12% for e-commerce overall. So, cross-border e-commerce is growing faster than its domestic equivalent.
The generally confident mood extends further in the survey, the majority of respondents disagreeing with the idea that cross-border e-commerce and omnichannel shopping are too complex.

The factors driving change
For the first time since the survey began, m-commerce has failed to top the list when respondents were asked to name their key game changer for the sector. Though it was still cited by 9% of the respondents, it came in fourth, overtaken by alternative payment methods, the internet of things (IoT) and, way out in front in number one position, the increasing influence of online marketplaces.
What else can you expect in a year when Alibaba and Amazon continued to dominate the global market and 40% of all e-commerce is now done through online marketplace platforms?

The political climate
Wherever you stand politically, it’s unquestionable that the geopolitical landscape appears to be shifting. The election of Donald Trump in the US and success of the ‘Leave’ campaign in the Brexit referendum took many by surprise in 2016, and respondents reported mixed feelings about both of these democratic results.
When asked whether or not they thought Brexit would have a positive impact upon cross-border e-commerce between the UK and Europe, the majority of respondents chose the ‘neutral’ option, though a larger percentage disagreed with the idea than agreed. This indicates that, as with so much related to the Brexit negotiations currently taking place, it is simply not yet known how they will affect cross-border e-commerce.
As for Trump, our respondents were a little more decisive, with a majority believing the sitting Commander-in-chief would not have a positive impact on cross-border e-commerce.

Legislation concerns
Next year, the European Union will introduce two key pieces of legislation that could massively impact cross-border merchants: the new Payment Services Directive (PSD2), designed to improve competition and make payments safer for consumers, and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), designed to put consumers in control of their personal information.
The majority of respondents expressed concern about how new legislation could affect their business and with good cause. In the case of PSD2, companies that are not in compliance with its regulations by January 1st next year, could face strict penalties. To help prevent this, Payvision’s subsidiary, Acapture, recently launched SlicePay, a solution that ensures clients operate in complete compliance with PSD2. SlicePay is a PSD2 and BaFin compliant payment product that supports merchants to handle complex split settlements. It is an easy-to-integrate product designed to reduce the burden of payouts to multiple parties in various countries and currencies. It supports marketplaces, sharing economy operators, franchises, online travel agencies and other companies handling third-party funds to become fully compliant with PSD2. To find out more about how SlicePay helps deal with new regulation, see www.acapture.com/slicepay/

Retail is experience
With 95% of consumers saying they would make a repeat purchase from a retailer based on a positive return or exchange experience and 46% saying they would make a repeat purchase if they felt the merchant had given them a truly personalized shopping experience, it’s not surprising to see customer experience at the front of our respondents’ minds.
63% now offer free domestic delivery and 51% offer click-and-collect, though just 21% offer free international delivery. Interestingly, however, of those merchants, more agree than disagree that offering free international delivery has boosted sales. Improving the ordering and delivery process is clearly crucial for international expansion. In fact, 43% of the respondents cited Logistics and Delivery as a key pain point in cross-border e-commerce.
This plays out when you look at consumer preferences in major markets. In many wealthy, mature e-commerce regions such as the UK, Germany and the USA, there is a reluctance amongst consumers to shop from foreign websites and one of the most commonly mentioned reasons for this is long delivery times. For example, Swedish digital buyers are, on average, prepared to wait no more than 3 and a half days for a product, which is a delivery time beyond the abilities of many international online retail companies.

These numbers are just the tip of the iceberg. Payvision’s latest white paper Key Business Drivers and Opportunities in Cross-border Ecommerce 2017 brings together all of the results, illustrated beautifully in slick, easy-to-follow graphics. It also lists the most up-to-date e-commerce statistics in every major region worldwide, with rare data on market value and import/export opportunities. Plus it offers a detailed analysis of some of the most influential happenings in both business and geopolitics over the last year, how they have affected cross-border e-commerce and what merchants may need to do to prepare for next year.

Put simply, it’s a must-read for any cross-border retailer with ambitions to expand internationally in 2018 and it’s available free to download at http://www.payvision.com/cross-border-ecommerce-report-survey-2017.

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