Many Britons shop cross-border to find goods cheaper outside of the UK - Global-e report

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Nov 23, 2022

Black Friday could be bleak for UK retailers. How so? Some 48% of Britons says they are shopping online from international retailers for the event, finding better deals from countries such as China (57%) and the US (47%), new data from Global-e’s consumer survey shows.

Other popular markets for cross-border shopping by Britons include Germany (11%), Spain (10%) and France (9%).

And when shopping overseas, the survey of 9,000 global consumers shows Clothes, Shoes & Accessories is the most popular shopping category (74%), followed by Health & Beauty (29%), and Jewellery & Watches (23%).

When buying online, the survey says 62% of Britons prefer to purchase directly from the brand, over a marketplace (33%) and local reseller (26%), above the global average (a combined 58%). Those aged 25-34 are the most likely to purchase from a brand directly (71%) followed by those aged 16-24 (66%). 

And 46% of UK respondents say they purchased an item internationally because they heard about it from social media (Instagram, 58%, followed by Facebook/Meta, 42%, and TikTok 32%).

Unsurprisingly, affordability was the top reason driving Britons to shop online internationally, slightly higher than the global average (47%). For UK respondents, this is closely followed by the brand having a wide variety of products (33%) and offering low shipping costs (28%).

By contrast, expensive shipping (59%) and a lengthy or costly delivery time (43%) are the top reasons for Britons to abandon a cart when shopping internationally.

Meanwhile, the survey also shows that for global customers, the US (46%) and China (42%) are the most popular cross-border shopping destinations, with the UK (25%) in third place. Globally, Clothes, Shoes & Accessories (61%) are by far the most popular cross-border e-commerce category, followed by Health & Beauty (30%).