Total online spend by Indian consumers on domestic and cross-border purchases is expected to touch Rs 8,75,600 crore in 2018, a report by payment platform PayPal said today.

This is against an online spend of Rs 4,92,500 crore in 2016, the third Annual Global Cross-Border Consumer Research 2016 said.

Also, Indian online shoppers are estimated to have spent Rs 58,370 crore on shopping from other countries in 2016, the report added. “The internet has truly democratised cross-border trade. The freelance economy has grown in India and a considerable number of Indians shop in the global marketplace,” PayPal India Managing Director Anupam Pahuja said.

Leading categories for which Indians shopped online across the border include clothing/apparel, footwear, accessories (bought by 54 per cent of cross border shoppers from a website in another country in the past 12 months).

Consumer electronics (43 per cent) and cosmetics and beauty products (42 per cent) followed in the list.

The US (14 per cent) ranked as the top country from where Indians had shopped from, followed by the UK (6 per cent) and China (5 per cent).

The report found that free shipping (42 per cent), local currency payment (42 per cent), proof of product authenticity (41 per cent) and secure way to pay (40 per cent) were among the key drivers to make online shoppers more likely to shop from websites in other countries.

The study evaluated online and cross-border shopping behaviour of over 28,000 consumers across 32 countries, including 800 interviews in India.

‘Cart abandonment’ emerged as a key issue on cross-border shopping, with 51 per cent of the respondents claiming to have abandoned an online purchase from a website in another country.

Reasons for cross-border cart abandonment include shipping charges being high (38 per cent), long delivery period (31 per cent), expensive returns (26 per cent) and having to pay using another currency (24 per cent).

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