Millennials have driven the rise in international direct-to-consumer (DTC) e-commerce purchases in the last six months, with reduced access to stores during the pandemic. This has prompted over half (52 per cent) of 25-34-year-olds to buy online directly from international brands, according to the latest data from eShopWorld (ESW), a Dublin-based cross-border e-commerce company.
ESW is an Asendia Group company, a joint venture between La Poste and Swiss Post.Millennials have driven the rise in international direct-to-consumer e-commerce purchases in the last six months, with reduced access to stores during the pandemic. This has prompted over half of 25-34-year-olds to buy online directly from international brands, according to the latest data from eShopWorld (ESW), a Dublin-based cross-border e-commerce firm.#
Pre-peak pulse 2021 survey of almost 15,000 consumers across 14 countries showed that 52 per cent of shoppers overall were motivated to buy online during the pandemic. That average rose to 58 per cent among 25-44-year-olds, as shuttered stores and reduced access to physical shops prompted consumers to purchase items online that they normally would have validated and bought in-store.
This was most keenly felt in South Africa and India (both 63 per cent), followed by the United Arab Emirates (56 per cent), China (53 per cent) and the United States (52 per cent), ESW said in a press release.
Reduced access to stores also boosted cross-border e-commerce, with almost half (46 per cent) of global shoppers surveyed saying it prompted them to buy directly from an international brand online, rising to 52 per cent among those ages 25-34.
Consumers in India and China (both 61 per cent), Mexico (59 per cent) and Russia (50 per cent) were the most likely to have purchased directly from an international brand online in the first half of 2021.
As a result, traditionally ‘high contact’ items that consumers would have previously validated in-store—either by trying on or testing them—proved the most popular type of cross-border purchases over the past six months.
A quarter of global shoppers bought clothing online outside their domestic market over the period, while footwear (19 per cent), luxury goods (18 per cent), skincare (17 per cent), health and beauty (17 per cent), fragrance (16 per cent) and cosmetics (16 per cent) rounded out the list of the most popular international e-commerce purchases.
Once again, millennial and gen Z shoppers led the way, making cross-border purchases at three times the rate at of baby boomers (those ages 57-75).
The significant uptick in cross-border commerce throughout 2020 has continued in 2021, although year-over-year growth has been more muted, the ESW survey found. Of the top five most popular cross-border e-commerce categories, luxury grew the fastest over the past six months, rising by 6 per cent compared to the end of 2020, followed by skincare and fragrance (both up by 4 per cent over the period).
This increase in cross-border luxury purchases, driven mostly by younger shoppers, may have been fueled by new international buying behaviors caused by the pandemic, ESW’s data shows.
The online survey conducted in July covered 14,697 consumers in 14 countries: the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the United States, Canada, Mexico, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, India, Russia, China, South Korea, Japan and Australia.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
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