The impact of Brexit is seeing UK shoppers shun European retailers with a significant dip in cross-border purchasing.
In 2020, 45% of online customers in the UK were ordering from their European friends, but that number has dramatically dropped to just one-third in 2021, Sendcloud’s yearly E-commerce Delivery Compass found.
And with Britons having the highest online order frequency in Europe, that is a big market the EU is missing out on.
Instead of opting for goods from their European neighbours, the most popular destination for UK shoppers was as far as China (42%); in fact, this is true across all European countries, except Belgium and Austria.
The second most popular destination for cross-border shopping was the US (30%), followed by Germany (10%), with The Netherlands and Italy both tied in third (7%).
Despite going further afield for their purchases, the UK remains one of the most popular markets among EU customers by online, with Germany the top purchaser of British goods.
Shipping costs, meanwhile, were the dominant factor in Europeans not ordering from international online stores at 56%.
Second was the fear of having to pay for customs at 47%, followed by difficulty returning a product (47%).
“There is a lot of cross-border potential for online retailers, as long as costs can be cut for both themselves and their customers,” the report wrote.
