The convenience and the sheer bliss of shopping online and having your goodies delivered to your doorstep is something else. German consumers are not afraid to shop from foreign countries and test their products.

• 77% of the German consumers prefer to shop online.
• 31% of them have shopped from international e-commerce websites in the past 12 months.

Where Do They Shop?

Top Destinations:

While shopping online, the German consumers trust the certain country’s e-commerce website. These countries are:

• USA – 13% German consumers
• China – 9% German consumer
• United Kingdom – 12% German consumer

What Do They Shop?

Maybe because they like the quality or because they love the price, for whatever reason, the average German consumer buys the following from international e-commerce websites:

• Entertainment Education – 28%
• Apparel, Accessories, footwear and Clothing – 45%
• Consumer Electronics – 26%
• Travel and Transport – 26%

How Do They Find You?

• 44% of the German consumers go to the international websites they have used in the past.
• 42% of them are taken to foreign websites when they are searching for their favorite products on any search engine.
• 29% of the consumers go to those international e-retail websites that they know of or know the addresses.

Cross-Border E-Commerce Revitalized

• 30% of the German consumers shopped internationally via their cell phones.
• 11% of them have made payments via their cell phones.

What Urges Them To Shop Online Internationally?

• 43% of the consumers shop from those international websites that offer them a safe way to make payments.
• 44% like o shop from international websites because all additional fees and taxes are shown.
• 40% German consumers like to shop from international websites because they can buy hard to find items there.

What Turns Them Off?

• 44% of them are concerned that they will never get the product they purchased.
• 44% of the German consumers don’t shop internationally because of the high shipping costs.
• 47% of them are concerned about counterfeit goods.
• 46% are concerned about excess custom fees and taxes.

Why Do They Abandon Shopping Carts?

• 23% of them abandoned their carts because the shipping time was too long.
• 34% of them did it because the shipping and posting charges was too high.
• 31% of them abandoned their carts because of the security of the website.
• 23% did not want to register for an account.
• 23% were unsure of the custom/tax fees implied.

Why Do They Return Your Products?

• Almost 16% of the German consumers have returned their international purchases.
• 7% of them do that because the product they receive is not what was described to them online.
• 5% of them no longer had the need or desire to use that product.
• 7% of them returned the products because they always intended to return some of them.

Freight Forwarding – A Major Issue

• 16% of the consumers prefer to use a forwarding address.

• 7% of them have used a freight company.
• 40% of the German consumers use a freight forwarding company because the website of their choice did not ship to their country.
• 27% of them do it because the shipping offered by the international website was too expensive.
• 25% of them used a freight company because they wanted to reduce custom and tax fees.

Currency Conversion

• 65% actually don’t shop online because they can’t make payments in their own currency.

Lastly, many of the German consumers don’t shop online because of the language barriers. They may like the products on your website, if they cannot find the information they need on your website, chances are they will not buy from you, ever. You can control this issue and even eliminate it by using Retail Translation Services. This is perhaps the most cost effective way to globalize your website and get more sales.