More Consumers Crossing Borders For Sales, Payments

Consumers are increasingly making transactions across borders, said a new report by Pitney Bowes. As much as 66 percent of consumers who buy items online are doing so with purchases being made outside the borders of their own countries, noted the report. And the movement toward increased eCommerce adoption implies that cross-border payments will only grow.

But as with any new technology adoption, friction points remain. As the study noted, fraud remains a sticking point and a key concern. Fraud that is conducted across international spaces is more than two times higher than has been seen domestically, as Lexis-Nexis has noted. The result is more money spent by firms to combat fraud and also additional time spent on manual review. Research from Business Insider showed that false declines will cost U.S. merchants as much as $8.6 billion this year.

Turning back to the Pitney Bowes study, 47 percent of those surveyed said that price remains a key motivator to buy things across borders, with 27 percent stating quality as a main driver and another 26 percent nodding toward better selection as a key motivator.