Indians spent Rs 58,370cr in cross-border shopping in past 12 months: PayPal report

Indian shoppers spent an estimated Rs 58,370 crore on shopping from other countries last year with lifestyle and clothing being the leading category at 54 percent followed by consumer electronics (43 percent) and cosmetics and beauty products (42 percent).

According to the PayPal’s 3rd Annual Global Cross-Border Consumer Research 2016, 25 percent of the online shoppers surveyed in India claim to have shopped from websites in other countries in the past 12 months, and the cross-border spending could grow 85 percent in 2017.

The top three countries where Indians shopped in last one year are USA (14 percent, United Kingdom (6 percent) and China (5 percent). “The Internet has truly democratised cross-border trade. The freelance economy has grown in India and a considerable number of Indians shop in the global marketplace,” Anupam Pahuja, Managing Director, PayPal India, said in a statement.

The other highlights from the report include:

• Key drivers making online shoppers more likely to shop from websites in other countries include free shipping (selected by 42 percent of online shoppers), payments possible in local currency (42 percent), proof of product authenticity (41 percent) and secure way to pay (40 percent).

• By 2018, online spend within India and cross border is forecast to reach Rs 8,75,600 crores from the current estimated spend of Rs 4,92,500 crore in 2016.

• The preferred device choice for purchase was desktop or the laptop (56 percent) followed by smartphones (accounting for 29 percent of cross-border purchases), and tablets (10 percent).

The report also notes that PayPal is the most popular payment method for making cross-border transactions by the Indians, with 64 percent claiming to have used Paypal for a cross-border purchase in the past 12 months. Cross-border shoppers who prefer to use PayPal as their cross-border payment method selected safer way to pay (selected by 60 percent), well-known, trusted brand (47 percent) and quick processing of payment (43 percent), as reasons for preferring to use PayPal for cross-border transactions.