Indians’ online purchases from abroad to touch Rs54,700 cr this year

Indian online shoppers will spend an estimated Rs54,700 crore on shopping online from other countries in 2015, according to a report released on Thursday by PayPal and IPSOS.

The Global Cross Border Consumer Research 2015 estimates overall online spends inclusive of cross border shopping to touch Rs7,02,900 crore by 2017.

The average spends of Indians on cross-border transactions is estimated to be around Rs1.42 lakh per cross-border shopper in 2015. The research further said that cross border spends by Indians is expected to grow at 78.5 per cent from 2015 and 2016.

The research evaluates the online and cross-border shopping habits of over 23,000 internet users across 29 countries including 808 interviews in India.

Vikram Narayan, country manager and managing director, PayPal India, in a release said, ''Cross border spends by Indians is estimated to grow at 78.5 per cent from 2015 to 2016. PayPal is used as a cross-border payment option by 84 per cent of the cross border shoppers. PayPal's unique offerings like Buyer Protection and Refunded Returns have helped address some of the barriers like safety and security and return shipping faced by shoppers while transacting cross border.''

The research further highlights that desktops account for 53 per cent of purchases made by cross border shoppers from websites in another country in the last 12 months. However, mobile use for cross border shopping has seen a good growth of 41 per cent in the last 12 months. This includes cross border shopping of 30 per cent on smartphones and 11 per cent on tablets.

''The Indian e-commerce space is experiencing an exciting time where innovation is the key. Our research reveals that the advent of technology is slowly diminishing borders for online shopping. With the number of online shoppers set to grow exponentially, it will lead to increase in the number of shoppers who shop from global retailers with online presence,'' said Narayan.

However, there were some deterrents that restricted growth of cross-border shopping, which included high customs duty and high shipping costs. High delivery costs deterred 52 per cent of cross border online shoppers, while 43 per cent were deterred due to the customs/fees and or taxes.

Cart abandonment is also a key issue on cross border shopping, where consumers abandon their online shopping carts after having chosen their products for purchase. Reasons for cart abandonment :include 30 per cent abandoned due to preferred payment option not available, 27 per cent due to lack of clarity about how much duty, tax, or custom fees would have to be paid and 25 per cent due to concerns about website security.

PayPal was used by 84 per cent of cross border shoppers in the past 12 months, followed by Visa debit card used by 58 per cent and Visa credit card used by 42 per cent.