Millennials are still overwhelmingly the most likely to shop cross-border in every market, except Canada, where baby boomers edge out the younger demographics, according to the Global Voices 2022 survey conducted by Dublin-based global direct-to-consumer e-commerce company ESW in November last year.

Anywhere from a third to half of all millennial survey respondents engage in cross-border shopping. Those from China (72 per cent) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE, 65 per cent) lead the pack. The emergence of gen Z sees the strongest showing in South Africa (27 per cent) and India (20 per cent).

Millennials are still overwhelmingly the most likely to shop cross-border in every market, except Canada, where baby boomers edge out the younger demographics, says a survey done by Dublin-based direct-to-consumer e-commerce company ESW in November last year. Anywhere from a third to half of all millennial survey respondents engage in cross-border shopping.

Other characteristics of cross-border shoppers vary greatly depending on where in the world they are. While gender is largely split in half in most markets and leans female, South Africa is the only place where more than half of survey respondents are single or never married.

Germans, Americans, Canadians and Australians are less likely to have kids, with more than half of all respondents stating they don’t have children.

Millennials have the highest percentage of total online purchases. In the past year, 37 per cent of millennials made more than 11 purchases, followed by 30 of gen Z, 26 per cent of gen X and 19 per cent of boomers.

Geographically, shoppers in the UAE (53 per cent), China (50 per cent) and India (41 per cent) lead the charge, with over 40 per cent of shoppers registering 11 or more purchases outside their home country.

The United Kingdom reported a strong showing of both millennial (38 per cent) and gen Z (36 per cent) power shoppers.

When looking specifically at cross-border shopping behaviour, millennials were by far the leading power shoppers, over-indexing in purchase frequency levels at 11 or more.

When it comes to finding out about new brands and products, YouTube is a leader across generations, with more than 50 per cent of gen Z (55 per cent) and millennials (53 per cent) citing it as a driver of discovery.

Millennials are also relying on Facebook (47 per cent) and Instagram (46 per cent), while gen Z looks less to Facebook (36 per cent) and more to Tik Tok (41 per cent). Facebook is the most effective platform for boomers (though still at a lower rate than younger consumers at 36 per cent), and it is a close second to YouTube for Gen X (46 per cent).

With the push to online, media formats like television and magazines appear to have less influence than they used to for everyone, including boomers. However, they still rank as their third and fourth sources of discovery. Gen Z and millennials would sooner gravitate to other channels, such as social influencers, Twitter and Pinterest.

From cosmetics to luxury goods, millennials and gen Z are buying significantly more from outside their home countries than gen X and boomers. In fact, they are buying at or near twice the rate of boomers in every category, including apparel.

No matter their age, the overwhelming majority of online shoppers preferred to buy from online marketplaces. While two-thirds of customers purchased from sites such as Amazon, eBay and Alibaba, only 20-25 per cent of customers purchased directly from other channels, including multi-brand retailers, single-brand retailers, luxury retailers and specialty stores

From a country perspective, consumers in China have a much higher preference for online shopping (53 per cent) than the rest of the world. They are followed most closely by shoppers in South Africa (42 per cent) and India (39 per cent).

Consumers in the UAE (39 per cent), France (39 per cent), China (39 per cent) and Germany 38 per cent) are most likely to spend more to improve their physical surroundings.

For those who plan to spend less on online shopping over the next 12 months, 45 per cent simply want to save money, and 28 per cent said that pandemic has made them more financially conservative. Twenty-six per cent cited overall economic uncertainty coming out of the pandemic, while another 26 per cent said that uncertainty relating to their job stability is an area of concern.

Nearly 35 per cent of boomers noted they are more financially conservative than 30 per cent of gen X, 26 per cent of millennials and 23 per cent of gen Z. On the flip side, 27 per cent of Gen Z stated that job and economic uncertainty would cause them to tighten their purse strings, compared to 25 per cent of millennials, 29 per cent of gen X and just 19 per cent of boomers.

Those in South Africa (37 per cent), Mexico (36 per cent) and Russia (34 per cent) are more financially conservative than consumers in the rest of the world. South Africans (44 per cent) are also more likely to be concerned about job and economic uncertainty, followed by UAE (34 per cent).

Top reasons that consumers cite for buying cross-border include having a positive past experience buying from a foreign website (26 per cent), paying less than they would domestically (26 per cent) and discovering products they can’t find locally (25 per cent). Secondary reasons include product variety and lack of local availability.

One-third of consumers in Canada, Australia, and South Africa shop cross-border because the products aren’t readily available locally. Meanwhile, the French, South Koreans, Russians and Australians buy because the products are less expensive.

There are, however, deterrents to buying from foreign websites. Shipping costs (27 per cent) and extended shipping times (27 per cent) are the main reasons why consumers choose not to buy cross-border.

Concerns around product quality, return policies and whether the product would be received at all were each cited by 18 per cent of survey respondents, followed by taxes and duty fees and hidden costs (each 17 per cent).

The November survey was a follow-up to the July 2021 pre-peak survey that provided deep consumer insights as new cohorts emerged in the cross-border ecommerce space.

The latest survey was fielded from more than 14,000 consumers across 14 countries, looking closely at generational shopping habits, behaviours, and attitudes, specifically related to the cross-border shopping experience.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)