Nearly one-third of online shoppers say they make domestic online purchases on a daily or weekly basis - with over two-thirds in China reporting this regularity, the survey finds. Cross-border shopping occurs less frequently than domestic shopping, with the majority of consumers (58 percent) shopping monthly or annually. Top countries for monthly and annual cross-border shopping include Australia (78 percent), Singapore (77 percent), Canada (72 percent), Mexico (71 percent) and Hong Kong (70 percent).

More than 60 percent of consumers that have shopped cross-border are participating in what Pitney Bowes describes as "in-store global, online local," which is when consumers make in-store purchases during international travels, and follow up with online purchases from that same cross-border retailer. Most cross-border shoppers in South Korea, China and India cited that they often or always revisit a retailer online following international travels.

Throughout the shopping journey, mobile devices are also playing an increasingly greater role, the survey says. Roughly half of shoppers in Singapore (51 percent), India (50 percent), Mexico (49 percent) and China (47 percent) were most likely to use a tablet or phone for browsing. When it comes to order tracking, over half of shoppers in China, Hong Kong, India, Singapore and South Korea use these devices. Even though mobile is not the first choice for completing a purchase (33 percent), surveyed shoppers often use their mobile device for part of the shopping journey. For example, in the U.S., one-third of shoppers (33 percent) use mobile for completing a purchase, however mobile usage increases significantly (47 percent) when tracking an item post purchase. The data reveal a strong tracking application may be strategic to reaching the mobile shopper.

While marketplaces (62 percent), search engines (43 percent) and retailers' sites (39 percent) continue to be popular discovery tools, countries like Hong Kong (26 percent), Australia (24 percent) and Singapore (22 percent) rely on email communications to find new products, the survey says. And this year, nearly one-fifth (19 percent) of consumers are discovering new products through social media channels - especially in Hong Kong (45 percent), Mexico (32 percent), India and Singapore (both 30 percent). In fact, Hong Kong consumers are just as likely to use social channels to discover new products as they are a retailer’s website, while consumers in Mexico are more likely to use social media than visit a retailer's website.

Source: Pitney Bowes