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Cross-border e-commerce & holiday season: new study by Visa

E-commerce leaders consider online business as a perspective income opportunity

eCommerce sales

Cross-border e-commerce & holiday season: new study by Visa. Source: shutterstock.com

Visa released this year’s Global Merchant E-commerce Study (Visa GME Study), which shows that e-commerce leaders globally view international expansion and finding new cross-border customers as critical to driving growth, particularly heading into the prime holiday shopping period. 87% of e-commerce leaders surveyed believe expanding cross-border is one of their company’s biggest growth opportunities in the years ahead. Today, two in three businesses (66%) that sell online are already selling cross-border.

The holiday season is always a critical period for e-commerce business leaders, as it brings more than a quarter of annual incomes to 86% of companies surveyed.

The data is clear; cross-border is a major growth opportunity. But it’s not easy, especially for small businesses. As a global platform that sees millions of transactions daily, Visa helps merchants find new customers, verify their customers’ digital identities, and create secure, seamless experiences
Suzan Kereere, global head of merchant sales and acquiring, Visa

At the same time, 52% of the e-commerce leaders consider holiday season as risky and competitive, bringing more new challenges. Other global events are also a factor; trade policy is cited most frequently by US (34%) and Chinese (54%) leaders, while uncertainty in Europe is a concern for a clear majority (64%) of UK leaders.

Additional key findings include:

  • Whether purchasing goods domestically or internationally, customers want a similar experience. Leaders cite the most important factors as: quick delivery (44%), easy checkout (41%) and convenient payment methods (41%).
  • Two in three (66%) of businesses that do not sell cross-border plan to do so in the near future, with 90% eyeing the next three years.
  • The international expansion journey can be a daunting venture. A vast majority of those who haven’t expanded internationally (87%) haven’t even made attempts to do so. Top challenges cited are accepting and processing foreign transactions (37%) and shipping issues (42%).

SEE ALSO: Visa expands its fintech program to the US

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