International demand for British brands in 2023 was driven by cross-border shoppers in the UAE (36 per cent), Australia (28 per cent), South Africa (26 per cent), India (26 per cent) and Spain (23 per cent), the latest research from ESW reveals.
ESW’s Global Voices research of more than 18,000 consumers across eighteen countries also revealed neither the United States (17 per cent) or China (17 per cent) featured in the top five markets purchasing from the UK, while Spain was the only European market for the second year running, as fragile consumer demand impacted demand in these key global markets.
Martim Oliveira Avillez, chief revenue officer of ESW commented: “Looking ahead to 2024, British brands and retailers again face the prospect of low domestic growth, certainly in the first half of the year at least, and challenging prospects in other key markets internationally across all categories. However, as international demand ebbs and flows, opportunities exist in markets such as the Middle East, India and the Asia Pacific – which, our data shows, have been consistently popular markets for UK brands over the past two years.”
The UK’s top five global markets were also among the most inclined to utilise Buy-Now, Pay-Later options (India 26 per cent, UAE 24 per cent, Australia 22 per cent), purchase directly from a social channel (India 25 per cent, UAE 22 per cent), or from a virtual store (India and UAE 17 per cent of respondents). Younger demographics made up the majority of cross-border purchasers from the UK with more than a fifth (21 per cent) of 25 – 34-year-olds, followed by 18% of 35 – 44-year-olds.
Cross-border shoppers in Mexico (5 per cent), Brazil (4 pe cent), Japan (3 per cent) and Argentina (1 per cent) reported making the fewest purchases from the UK during 2023.
“Beyond the markets already conversant with British brands there are also significant opportunities. Our research shows consumers in Brazil and Mexico were amongst the highest indexing markets purchasing clothing, luxury and cosmetics cross-border in 2023, highlighting the opportunity for brands with access to international DTC eCommerce solutions to expand their customer base into these high demand markets to grow topline revenue.”
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