There’s no second place in a popularity contest

We tell our kids popularity isn’t everything. But when you are trying to attract new customers…it’s not nothing. When we last asked cross-border consumers in international markets how they felt about US brands—back in December 2020—the answer was lukewarm at best, with about a third of consumers saying they had a positive opinion. So, we were heartened to find out US brands this year seem to have gotten some of their mojo back.

Key takeaways

• Close to half of cross-border consumers in Australia, Canada, France, South Korea, and the UK have positive opinions towards brands/retailers based in the US.
• More than half (65%) of Chinese cross-border shoppers felt positive.
• German shoppers (40%) felt the most tepid about US brands.

• Consumers in Canada, Australia and the UK are buying products online from the US more frequently than other countries.
• In fact, about a quarter of cross-border consumers in Canada and China buy from the US at least once per month.
• France (8%) and South Korea (16%) had the lowest average frequency of US purchase.
• Less than one quarter of Canadian consumers say they never buy from US brands cross-border.

We asked consumers how much of their online purchases they spend cross-border with US brands and asked them to compare their behavior before and since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic—and predict how this would change after the pandemic is over.

• South Koreans (7%) and Canadians (6%) saw the biggest jump in share of online spending with US brands since the start of the pandemic.
• Meanwhile, China saw the biggest drop with 8pp lower spend than before the pandemic.
• Chinese consumers expect their share of spend with US brands across borders will rebound after the pandemic, by 6pp.
• Consumers in all other countries felt that cross-border spending with the US would stabilize at current elevated levels post-pandemic.