8 | | FEBRUARY - 2018SELLING ACROSS THE SEAS: THE ROLE OF PAYMENTS IN CROSS-BORDER RETAILWhen some of the first e-tailers emerged, the notion of buying something online, trusting the internet with your payment credentials, and having the product delivered to your door in a timely manner felt like a foreign (and impossible) concept. Fast forward two decades and you'd be hard-pressed to find a product or service that isn't available for purchase online. Advancement in technology is opening commerce opportunities for everyone at any time, on any device, and from anywhere. And across Asia Pacific, we're taking full advantage. A survey by PayPal found that we in APAC use mobile for cross-border purchases more than any other market in the world. Our neighbor to the north, China, has emerged as one of the biggest markets in terms of online spend, and the most popular cross-border online shopping destination for global online shoppers, topping the US and UK. For businesses in APAC, the opportunity to reach an entirely new customer base and expand overseas sales is huge. The China OpportunityTurning to Australia for a moment, across China there is a strong appetite among consumers for Australian goods. Viewed as good value for money and safer than Chinese goods, demand for Australian products­from dairy, fresh seafood and meat, to health supplements, baby products and pharmaceutical goods­is on the rise. In 2016, more than 8 in 10 Chinese online shoppers said they were highly likely to buy at least one Australian product in the next 12 months, while a similar number already had.By Tyson Hackwood, Head of APAC, Braintree Tyson Hackwood Supported by the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, and the emergence of online marketplaces connecting to consumers in China, it is becoming easier for local businesses to do business in China. Beyond China, the hunt to find better prices and products they wouldn't find in their own country are driving consumers globally to shop cross-border. But when it comes to making that final purchase, what stands between `Add to cart' and `Checkout' is the payment process. In the end, cross-border customer conversion boils down two things­convenience and security. Selling convenienceA great user experience is always important in e-commerce, but it's even more vital for cross-border sales where shoppers are more cautious and cart abandonment rates are higher. In an age of mobile-everything, one technology that is beginning to capture the attention of consumers is digital wallets.Globally, the mobile wallets market is expected to exceed USD 3 trillion, and consumers in APAC are again taking the IN MY OPINION
< Page 7 | Page 9 >