Through trends such as the rapid emergence of China as the global eCommerce leader and quick growth elsewhere in Asia and Latin America, online shopping has gone truly global.
The combined online retail market in countries studied by Forrester is projected to exceed $1 trillion in 2014 and nearly double within four years.
These figures don’t include various developing countries and territories currently experiencing dramatic ascendancy of their online consumer bases.
As domestic markets develop, consumers armed with various devices and payment methods have become increasingly familiar with the mechanics and benefits of shopping virtually.
In parallel, the Internet has raised awareness of new online shopping destinations. Brands and products not available in their own markets become visible, desirable, and available.What may seem like a good deal at home sometimes doesn’t look as good when compared with superior offers from abroad that may not have been accessible a few years ago.
The result is that consumers around the globe, armed with information and means, are shopping cross-border, seeking hard-to-find items and looking for deals.
Small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) have seized upon this opportunity. For many, crossborder trade has become a highly important revenue stream too valuable to be ignored.
However, in order to succeed in the competitive online retail market, SMEs must address logistical and reputational obstacles that their larger competitors don’t face.
To understand global consumer behavior around crossborder eCommerce, as well as that of SMEs with such practices, FedEx commissioned Forrester Consulting in April 2014 to evaluate what is accelerating and slowing these buying and selling behaviors from both sides of the transaction.
Then, to further explore this topic, Forrester developed the hypothesis that SMEs face specific marketing and logistical hurdles in reaching their target customers around the globe, but they have the opportunity to tap into this sizable and lucrative market.
In conducting an in-depth survey of 9,006 global online shoppers, as well as interviews with 34 SMEs with crossborder eCommerce operations in 17 countries and territories, Forrester found that cross-border shoppers have consistent and specific needs centered on seller reputation and logistics as they purchase overseas.
Forrester also found that SMEs that sell cross-border realize they need to offer services typically associated with larger companies to overcome the concerns of international customers.
Key Findings
Forrester’s study yielded three key findings: