Mobile spending by Indian shoppers to grow by 93% by 2020: PayPal IPSOS

PayPal, the world’s leading digital payments provider and Ipsos, today released the 4^th Annual PayPal IPSOS Cross-Border Consumer Research 2018. The research evaluates the global cross border shopping patterns to examine the drivers, barriers and attitudes towards online shopping. It focuses on the modes of payments used and includes an outlook of growth prospects for the Indian ecommerce sector by 2020.

The research analyses online and cross-border shopping behavior of over 34,000 consumers across 31 markets including India. 

“Digital payment companies like PayPal have enabled Indians consumers make international payments in a safe and seamless manner. India is a mobile first economy and for PayPal globally mobile is a key growth driver contributing close to 40% of our total payments volume. We have customized our mobile app features for Indian consumers enabling them to make payments on the go. Our global network, focus on risk and security, and unique Buyer Protection and Refunded Returns policies have led us to become a preferred payment option”, said Anupam Pahuja, Managing Director, PayPal India.

Online spending expected to increase

The research highlights that 87% of the Indians surveyed have shopped online in the last 12 months; 58 percent of purchases are within India via an app/website while 13 percent of purchases are made outside India, via apps or websites. 21% of online purchases are through market places and 9% through social media sites.

The report indicates that about 73% of Indian shoppers believe that their online spends will grow over the next 12 months while only 14% believe that it will stay the same. The top reasons for increase in online spending are convenience of shopping online (77% of those who say their online spend will increase) followed by more platforms to buy (52%) and expecting shipping to become faster (45%).

The research reveals that the top three corridors for cross-border shopping were USA (20% of online shoppers have shopped from a website in the USA in the last 12 months), China (10%) and United Kingdom (7%). 

When asked if there were times of year when they shop more online from other countries than they would usually, 48% of Indian cross-border shoppers say they shop cross-border more than usual during Christmas and 46% say they shop more from other countries at Diwali.

The top three reasons for Cross-border shoppers to use PayPal for payments are that it is accepted by most retailers (41%), is a secure way to pay (40%) and processes payments quickly (39%).

PayPal also emerged as the most trusted payment method for cross-border transactions, selected by 50% of respondents. About 23% cross-border shoppers also cited that they are unlikely to process the payment in the absence of PayPal

Drivers and barriers for online payments

Key drivers for online shoppers to shop from other countries include the availability to pay in local currency (selected by 42% of online shoppers), free shipping (41%), and proof of product authenticity (41%). Top barriers for cross-border shopping are shipping costs, custom duties or other taxes and payments in foreign currencies. For online shoppers who have not made cross-border purchases, shipping costs, payments in foreign currencies and delivery time impedes their interest in cross-border shopping.

Key statistics from the PayPal Cross-Border Consumer Research 2018

PayPal Insights 2018:

On behalf of PayPal, Ipsos interviewed a representative quota sample1 of c.1000-2000 (34,052 in total) adults (aged 18 or over) who use an internet enabled device in each of 31 countries or markets (USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Norway, Austria, Russia, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Greece, Israel, UAE, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, South Africa, India, China, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, Philippines). Interviews were conducted online between 13th March and 1st May 2018. Of the 34,052 interviewed 30,698 were Online shoppers (had made a purchase on the internet via desktop/laptop/notebook/smartphone or tablet) and among them 16,706 were identified as cross-border shoppers.

Interviews in India were carried out between 15^th – 22^nd of March 2018 among a sample of 1000. Of the 1000 interviewed, 981 were Online shoppers (had made a purchase on the internet via desktop/laptop/notebook/smartphone or tablet) and among them 337 were identified as cross-border shoppers.

Data was weighted in all countries to adjust for panel bias based on external trend data on incidence of online shoppers in each country.

1 In most countries quotas were applied on age crossed with gender and region representative of online population. No region quota was applied in SA, Singapore & RU. In UAE no quotas were set but the survey was mailed out to a nationally representative of offline sample who were screened for internet usage

2 Aged 18-74 in all European countries

3 Desktop computer/Laptop/ notebook computer/Tablet /Smartphone/Some other type of mobile phone/Electronic organizer / PDA with wireless voice and data features/Games console with Internet connectivity (e.g. Wii)

*Estimated growth based on future intention of cross-border shoppers, and online shoppers who have not shopped cross-border