The fifth annual cross-border e-commerce research report has been published in collaboration with Juniper Research and reveals cross-border e-commerce trends in 2017.
The paper includes the results of a global survey of various industry players regarding the game-changers, the biggest challenges, the best practices for going cross-border. When compared to last year’s findings, the report reveals a new and exciting context for global cross-border trade.
The compound annual growth rate predicted for the next three years for cross-border e-commerce is now 17%, whereas it stands at just 12% for e-commerce overall. Also, over the past 12 months, merchants’ attitudes towards cross-border e-commerce have become more positive, with 50% of respondents agreeing and 31% strongly agreeing that cross-border e-commerce is profitable.
If last year mobile commerce was considered to be the biggest cross-border e-commerce growth factor, this year the main driver merchants pointed out was the accelerated development of online marketplaces. 39% of the world’s entire e-commerce market will be controlled by marketplaces by 2020.
However, the research also discusses a few regulatory items introduced by the European Union that pose major challenges, specifically for international marketplaces. More precisely, the new Payment Services Directive (PSD2) to be introduced from January 2018, requires all merchants operating under a marketplace business model to acquire a payment institution license. The costs and efforts attributed to getting such license will have a massive impact on the business activity of merchants, and the most preferred solution is to partner with a compliant solution provider.
“Acting as a link between buyers and sellers, online marketplaces have created an incomparable level of security and usability for the involved parties that better support merchants in their international expansion,” says Cheng Liem Li, CCO, Payvision Group.
“However, these operators are currently confronted with regulatory changes predicted to severely impact their business. We are well-equipped to take away the regulatory complexity with SlicePay, our PSD2 compliant payment solution, and enable the marketplace to focus on growing their business across many regions and reaching new consumers.”
Furthermore, the latest consumer technology trends such as VR/AR, data science, blockchain technology, artificial intelligence and machine learning together with the Internet of Things (IoT), enable merchants to reach their cross-border customers in a way that was never possible before. Consumers have higher expectations in terms of shopping experience, pushing merchants to constantly reinvent their e-commerce strategies.
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