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Online Consumer Buying Behaviour Insights From International Markets

Online consumer buying behaviours insights from international markets

With the Black Friday sales in the rearview mirror, there are still a lot of opportunities to tap into your online audience. In the UK alone, almost half (48%) of consumers plan to only shop online for the winter holidays, compared to 6% who will only shop in-store, according to The Drum.

And when your business is selling online, there is no reason you shouldn’t expand beyond your borders and engage with international customers. To do so successfully, you need to be mindful of the cultural specificities and different buying behaviours for each country where you’ll be trading. We’ve put together a short, regional guide of the online buying trends you should be aware of:

Europe

Europe is a “continent divided”, and there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to managing online shopping. Your business will need to take a country-by-country approach to interacting with customers and should understand local preferences.

For example, when it comes to the time consumers take to make an online purchase, buyers from Italy and Spain are pretty decisive, taking an average of 8 minutes to a maximum of one hour for clothes purchases. In contrast, French shoppers like to take their time, spending as long as 8 hours to buy a pair of sneakers (compared to the European average of 2h and 20 minutes).

And according to Eurostat, in 2020, 8 in 10 internet users in the Netherlands (91%), Denmark (90%), Germany (87%), Sweden (86%) and Ireland (81%) had bought or ordered goods or services online, while in Bulgaria (42%), Romania (45%) and Italy (49%), this number was less than 5 out of 10. This is why your business could benefit from an eCommerce platform like Stor.co to help create campaigns for incentivising each country differently. Some countries will need discounts for an extra boost; some will benefit from abandoned cart incentives when customers take too long to make a purchase, and others will leverage social selling links for the decisive customers to purchase without leaving their preferred social network.

The US

The US is the second-largest eCommerce market in the world, after China. According to CNBC, in 2020, the US has experienced a growth of 30% in online sales, amounting to $791.7 billion spent by Americans shopping online. 25% of Americans shop online at least once per month. The majority of the spending last year was on groceries, home improvement equipment and personal and health care items.

60% of online consumers in the US are Millennials. Unsurprisingly, their choice of payment options reflects their progressive generational traits: debit or credit cards, a prepaid card, or through a digital account or mobile wallet. So your business should provide customers with a variety of payment options in order to encourage more purchases and minimise cart abandonment. Choosing a payment gateway like TRU Connect will cover all these options, including mobile wallet solutions that can help your business adapt to an ever-changing digital landscape and capturing the attention of younger customers.

Asia-Pacific

Regionally, Asia-Pacific is the leader in eCommerce sales, with China accounting for 52% of all retail eCommerce sales worldwide, according to eMarketer. They predict that in 2021, India will become the fastest-growing eCommerce market with an online sales growth of 27% as more retailers launch or expand their online stores, lifting the country to the eighth place in the annual eCommerce sales rankings. With an estimated growth of 26% in 2021, Russia is another new entrant to the top 10 sales ranking.

The growing middle class in the region is making a significant contribution to the growth of eCommerce, along with the higher penetration of mobile and the internet. During the purchase journey, mobile devices are increasingly becoming the primary engagement channel for consumers. Therefore, your online shop needs to be mobile-ready and fully responsive so customers have a smooth checkout experience. A platform like Stor.co will enable these features out of the box, keeping your investment in the newest technologies to a minimum.

As short-form video content is another critical trend that drives online shoppers in APAC, building a video content strategy to engage with these audiences is vital. During 2020, Chinese internet users spent an average of 42.6 hours each month watching short videos, according to Statista, so engage with these users by incorporating video ads into your app marketing strategy.

Want to learn more? Check out this article about the main pain points of your online customers’ experience and how to deal with them. If you’re interested to learn more about Trust Payment’s services, drop us a message here.

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