In cross-border shopping consumers find lots of bargains to tempt them. No wonder that more and more Germans are ordering their products from foreign webshops: in spite of longer delivery times and more complex returns processing, almost every second German (49 percent) has already ordered goods via foreign online shops. Online retailers from China in particular are enjoying increasing popularity with a 44 percent share of foreign online purchases, an increase of 33 percent compared to 2016. These are the findings of this year's E-Shopper Barometer from DPD.

Popular products in foreign shopping

According to the study, online purchases on foreign websites account for 16.6 percent of Germany's total online purchasing volume. The main reasons for ordering from international shops are lower prices (47 percent) and the fact that the desired article is not available from German shops (55 percent). Goods from the product categories "high-tech and electronics" (15 percent), "DVD/CD/video" (14 percent) and "fashion" (12 percent) figure prominently among those which land in the shopping baskets of foreign retailers. Due to the longer delivery times, however, around 39 percent of German online shoppers say they aren't interested in placing orders abroad.

Customer-friendly delivery options make all the difference

However, it isn't only the preference of German e-shoppers for foreign online shops that catches the eye in any analysis of the results of the study: for many online shoppers, customer-friendly delivery of their orders is now just as much a part of the shopping experience as the assortment offered online or the shop's service. 79 percent of respondents are influenced by the delivery options provided by online retailers. Webshops that offer free returns are preferred by 31 percent, while free shipping is important to 29 percent of participants. Delivery options such as next-day delivery or real-time shipment tracking (79 percent each) are particularly popular. For 73 percent, concrete information about the time of delivery plays a decisive role.

Further results of DPD's current E-Shopper Barometer, for which over 24,000 consumers in 22 countries were surveyed, can be found in the complete study, which is available as a free download here.