To find out how Panoplaza works, read on.

Why subject yourself to the gruelling ordeal of heaving department store aisles and long queues at the tills when you can visit a shop from the comfort of your own sofa?

A workable solution for this scenario has been developed by Panoplaza in Japan. With the aid of panoramic images, a complete shop can be made available online to the user. The customer can move around within it (comparable to Google Street View) head for display units or shelves, call up product information and, of course, order goods online with the click of a button.

It is true that Panoplaza has, as yet, had no impact on retail. But it’s equally true to say that some very interesting scenarios for its future use can be imagined.

1. Online retailers could set up their own showrooms and present merchandise in them. And it would make make no difference at all whether the showroom was in an A, B or C location. A factory building would basically do. An additional benefit would be a potential reduction in staffing and real estate costs for the retailer.  In this way, virtual pop-up stores could spring up from nowhere without major expense.
2. Online merchants would be able to transfer goods presentation strategies onto the internet from bricks-and-mortar retail outlets.  When visiting a virtual showroom, the user would be systematically led through the ranges, just like in real life. The showroom could, for instance, be set up in aisles for maximum convenience, as in the familiar supermarket layout, or designed with generously proportioned display islands to offer a relaxed and pleasant shopping experience.
3. The ability to integrate live images from the shop instead of static panoramic views would open the door to virtual customer service in real time. The in-house sales staff would be equipped with headsets and tablet PCs. If the customer had a question about a particular product, he would be able to communicate his need for advice from his own home. The next available salesperson would be led to the product being looked at by the customer on his home PC. The sales person would be connected with the customer via live chat and could give him advice.

The Pago Report 2008 is based on real life purchase transactions and compares the national consumer and payment behaviour in European e-commerce

The Pago Report states that the British online merchants are increasingly attracting more international consumers. On the other hand in Germany customers do 95% of their shopping in German online shops where as only 45% of customers in UK shops are from the UK. Around 30% of international customers are from countries outside Europe, like the USA or Asia.

The Pago eTransaction Services, an international Acquirer and Payment Service Provider has just published the Pago Report 2008. This edition ist the seventh of the report and is entitled “Trends in E-commerce Purchasing and Payment Behaviour based on real Transactions”.

The Report analyses developments in European online consumer and payment behaviour, non-payment risks and trends in important e-commerce industry sectors.

The Pago Report 2008 is rounded off by Essays by prominent experts from the major credit card organisations, the Deutsche Bank, giropay and the University of Karlsruhe.

According to the Pago Report 2008, online shops in the UK are more attractive to foreign consumers than are, for example, German online merchants. In German shops less than 5% of online purchases are made by international consumers and only a negligible 0.8% from outside Europe. This could be a result of the language barrier.

English is the most widespread language in the world and with over 340 million native speakers alone and it is understood by a majority of e-commerce consumers. Overall in Europe, German and British online consumers are the most active e-commerce participants but Irish consumers have gained a lot and now rank fourth in Europe behind French consumers.

Selection of about 30 million purchase transactions forms basis of the Pago Report 2008

The Pago Report 2008 is based on a selection of about 30 million purchase transactions processed through the Pago platform between October 2006 and September 2007. The report is based on real life purchase transaction and not on analysis of polls and surveys. The Pago Report covers online merchants in Germany, the UK and the rest of Europe.
The report analyses consumer origin, merchant country, transaction values, purchase time, consumer gender, payment methods – including the new online payment methods Maestro and giropay – success rates, chargeback ratios, direct debit chargeback ratios as well as the general non-payment risk with a detailed look at the implementation of 3-D Secure. 3-D Secure is a procedure introduced by the major credit card organisations which allows the identification of the cardholder thereby preventing a large proportion of e-commerce chargebacks. The chargeback ratio is the percentage of credit card transactions which are reversed due to cardholder dispute.

No real Christmas shopping season in UK e-commerce

Online consumer behaviour in Europe is characterized by differences between individual countries. Whereas German online consumers make about one third of their purchases between October and December, UK consumers do less than 10%. In essence: E-commerce for British consumers takes place only between May and September.

British e-commerce consumer slowdown at weekends

Whereas e-commerce is becoming a more attractive weekend activity for consumers in Europe generally, there is a marked U of activity by UK consumers at weekends. In contrast to global trends, UK weekend online consumer activity has dropped further. Only 20% of all weekly transactions are executed in the UK on Saturdays or Sundays. In comparison, consumers outside the UK and Germany account for 26% of their purchases over the weekends.

UK online consumers do their shopping during office hours

According to the Pago Report 2008, there are also differences in the preferred time for online purchases: German consumers use the period from 8pm to 10pm, i.e. after work, most whereas the peak period in the UK is between 2pm and 4pm, i.e. during working hours.

The credit card dominates European e-commerce

The Pago Report also found differences in payment behaviour between the consumers’ countries of origin. German consumers still pay for two out of three purchases with payment methods other than the credit card, consumers in UK and from the rest of Europe and Non-European customers use credit card payment for over 90% of their online purchases.
Pago is the first non-UK acquirer, that has offered Maestro since the summer of 2006, the internet enabled debit card payment method, to its merchants. Maestro is already a leading payment method in the UK and will gain importance with the introduction of the European-wide SEPA framework. Maestro payments, analysed separately in this year’s Pago Report for the first time, account for about 10% of online purchases in the UK.

New payment methods gain importance in European e-commerce

Untill now, the Pago Report analysed consumer e-commerce activity of European countries. In 2008 Report the analysis was extended to include Non-European countries and individual continents.

The Pago Report 2008 is available immediately for purchase from the Pago Shop at www.pago.de

Today we will give leads related to shipping information in international online retail, based on Linda Bustos article “7 ways to improve International e-commerce availability” published by Palmer Web:

Have an international shipping page,
rather than an FAQ or a non intuitive help page. Footer menu and top right hand of the web page are proven locations a consumer would easily go to. It is useful if with one page you want to cover multiple countries; an alternative is to have one website per country.

Include important information,
such as return policies, hotline phone number and availability, estimated shipping times, order tracking availability. Local regulations regarding return policies must be observed; clarity and availabilit will increase your customer satisfaction.

Make your shipping policy searchable,
optimizing the use of keywords such as “international” on your website search engine.

Show international shipping availability on product pages,
regarding the authorisation or not of products in certain countries, respecting local regulations.

Convert currencies, weight and measures on product pages,
think for example at the various currencies in Europe euros (EUR), pounds (GBP), swiss francs (CHF) etc…

Estimate shipping costs on your product page,
developing your own grid or using standard API developed by the various shipping carriers. It is key to be also consistent between the information your deliver on your website and the information delivered in the basket during the ordering process.

Send post sale emails,
will show that you care about international business. You will learn also a lot from your customers so do not hesitate to ask for input of what you could propose as a service for international business.