Consumers are increasingly expanding their shopping to online retailers outside their geographic region, according to a recent study by Nielsen [1] that confirms the findings of other market researches.
Thus, nearly three-quarters of Indian respondents who shopped online in the past six months say they purchased items from an overseas retailer (74%) -a trend that extends beyond the developing world. Roughly two-thirds of Western European respondents say they purchased goods from an overseas retailer, including 79% in Italy -the highest percentage in the study - and 73% in Germany.
“Retail has been one of the last globalization holdouts, but technology is giving consumers access to a world of products that were previously unavailable,” said Nielsen President of Global Retail Patrick Dodd.
“Choice is greatly enhanced by cross-border e-commerce. In many developing markets, the growing middle class is trading up and demanding greater assortment not found at their domestic retailer. Consequently, these consumers are looking overseas to purchase authentic foreign brands, often at lower prices than they can find in their home country. Meanwhile, developed-market consumers gain access to a range of goods directly from foreign companies at often significant discounts to what they would pay domestically.”
