According to recent reports, 25% of global e-commerce traffic is now coming from mobile devices.

"E-commerce traffic from smartphones and tablets rose 3% in the last quarter. Tablets make up about two-thirds of m-commerce traffic (or about 15% of all e-commerce traffic), while smartphones account for around one-third of m-commerce traffic and roughly 10% of all e-commerce traffic. (...) The average order value for a tablet is $139, while for PCs it is $136 and for smartphones it is $114."

In other news, in 2013, 15 % of mobile media users made some form of mobile payment to make a purchase. The largest group of these users did so via a mobile wallet, mainly in NFC technology.

"Mobile money users are 26% more likely to purchase via mobile. Globally, 91 % made some form of mobile purchase in 2013 as opposed to 65 % of all mobile consumers."

"In Africa, the ‘mobile-only’ culture means the mobile money account is the bank account. Globally, 66 % of mobile media users use some form of mobile banking. In Kenya, for example, it’s 92 %."

"A quarter of users claim they don’t make mobile payments because ‘the network is too slow’. (...) those connected to 4G networks are much more engaged: almost two in three (64 %) have made a mobile payment."

The Argentinian government has decided to restrict purchases made via the internet (two purchases of goods from foreign e-commerce websites each year) to reduce the amount of USD leaving the country and it applies to goods that enter Argentina using the postal service.

"And, the Administration of Public Revenue (AFIP) has also set a value limit that means consumers will be able to buy only $25 worth of goods from websites abroad each year. (...) consumers buying more from abroad than the two-item, $25 limit will face a 50% import tax on anything they buy, including shipping costs."

"Cross-border online shoppers will have to submit a sworn statement or affidavit to the government — stating what has been purchased, attaching a printed receipt and including a tracking number — before items can be removed from customs."

"Cross-border online shopping is beginning to soar in Argentina, with about 1.5m Argentinians purchasing items from foreign websites last year, about double the number shopping cross-border in 2012."

"The government was already beginning to tighten controls on cross-border shopping last year, when a 35% import tax was imposed on purchases made with foreign credit cards."

"Argentinians looking to buy more than this amount will have to register with the government as importers, thereby complying with the country’s import regulations, the General Import Regime. As a result, Argentinian citizens who want to buy goods over the web must first get an approval from the government. The initiative is aimed at reducing the amount of USD leaving the country and it applies to goods that enter Argentina using the postal service."

Fraud is still one of major issues driving customers away from e-commerce. They don't trust foreign sites to handle their payment details.

According to new reports, in Netherlands, there were 28.000 reported online fraud complaints, majority involved phishing cases, where fraudsters send a seemingly official email to try and gain access to consumers' banking details. It is said that the 28,000 complaints are only the tip of the iceberg, with no more than 10 % of fraud attempts actually reported.

In UK, fraud dropped by 11% "but it still remains at a much higher rate than in pre-recessionary times", which is proof of the positive preventative impact of counter fraud measures such as data sharing.  Plastic cards are now the product most commonly targeted by fraudsters, up by 24% from the levels of 2012 and accounting for 30% of all confirmed fraud in 2013.

CBEC describes prevention techniques to counter the fraud. "More and more high profile data breaches are now being reported. (...) Research suggests that incidents of identity fraud now occur every three seconds and this alarming trend is having a huge impact on costs for merchants" Fraudsters operating online can prove to be more difficult to detect and with tendency to use foreign merchants as a testing ground for compromised cards. "Authenticating foreign customers has always been a challenge for cross-border merchants, particularly where those merchants operate across multiple geographies, often due to the limited customer and trend information they have on those markets. (...) It is vital that cross-border merchants have access to detailed payment and fraud trend information for each local market they are serving or looking to enter."

ThreatMetrix in new report states that "financial institutions must become more proactive when it comes to collecting data on customers’ digital behaviour to fight financial losses through criminals’ growing use of cross-channel fraud. (...) Gaps in the bank's security profile leave many institutions exposed to cross-channel attacks."

To fight with online fraud, Paymetric creates XiVerify, which promotes a secure environment by removing all credit card data from the merchant environment. "Merchants no longer transmit or store credit card numbers, yet can continue to conduct business as usual with ‘tokens’ that span the entirety of the customer relationship." 

In 2013, the Brazilian e-commerce market has registered sales of USD 13.01 billion (BRL 31.11 billion), up 29% from the year before. 53 million e-customers. Main categories: fashion and accessories, home appliances, health and beauty, electronics and computers. Predicted rise of 27% in 2014 reaching USD 16.5 billion (BRL 39.5 billion).

In 2013, Northern European e-commerce market was expected to reach  EUR 31 billion. Northern European region, including Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland and the Baltic states, is now in fourth position for e-commerce size, with a 9.2% European market share.

In 2013, Western European e-commerce was expected to reach EUR 173.8 billion. The Western European region (Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom) is now in first position for e-commerce size, with a 51% European market share. E.g. Irish consumers are buying online above the curve with 25% sales growth year on year - however, in 2012 25% of Irish online spending went overseas due to lack of choice.

In 2013 Southern European e-commerce reached EUR 39.5 billion. The region, consisting of Spain, Italy, Turkey, Greece, Portugal, Croatia, Cyprus and Malta has 128 million active internet users, of which 40 million are buying goods or products online. With total e-commerce sales of €12,9bn, Spain is heading up the Southern European Region, but Turkey represents an enormous market potential, boasting a 90% growth rate over 2012 and an expected 40% year-on-year growth for 2013, thereby ranging ahead of all other Southern European countries in terms of growth.

Invesp published a infographic regarding how social media influences purchase decisions. As recent news showed (Twitter teaming up with Stripe, Report: On-site social descovery going mainstream, Pinterest gets an e-commerce promotion) there is a rise of new, social e-commerce on the market. Which can be a future of cross-border e-commerce - customers will be searching more and more for items shared on social sites.

Infographic by- Invesp