Buying from an overseas brand used to feel exciting. Now, for many shoppers, it feels like a decision that needs a bit more thought and a lot more reassurance.
Consumers are discovering lot more new brands but they’re doing so with tighter budgets, sharper filters and a healthy dose of scepticism. The internal conversation has changed. It’s no longer just “Do I like this?” but “Can I trust this?” and “Is this really worth it?”
That change is what brought us together with Meta.
Bringing Real Shopper Thinking Into Focus
Together, we wanted to move beyond assumptions and get closer to how consumers actually shop beyond their home markets. How they weigh up value in the moment, where hesitation creeps in and what finally tips the balance when a brand isn’t familiar.
To explore this in depth, Meta used BoltChatAI to run AI-moderated conversations with 270 consumers across Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
All participants had recently shopped online and were open to buying from overseas brands, giving us a grounded view of both the opportunity and the friction shaping cross-border shopping today.
The conversations spanned furniture and electronics, health and beauty, and fashion and lifestyle…three categories where confidence, risk and value play out in very different ways and where those small moments of hesitation can make or break a purchase!
Value Has Changed and Shoppers Know It
One of the strongest themes to emerge was how much the idea of value has shifted. 67% of shoppers told us they’d changed their purchasing behaviour in the past six months, whether that meant buying less, switching brands or taking longer to commit.
What stood out was how rarely this was framed as simple belt-tightening.
Instead, shoppers talked about wanting to feel confident and justified when they spend, especially when buying from brands based overseas. For many, value now sits as much in reassurance as it does in price.
The Price Rise That Makes Consumers Pause
That need for reassurance becomes especially visible when prices change. Across all three markets, a 20% price increase consistently emerged as the point where shoppers stop and rethink.
In Australia in particular, this threshold triggered more brand switching and more active deal-seeking.
Crucially, this wasn’t just about affordability. Price rises were read as signals, prompting questions around fairness, consistency and whether a brand could still be trusted.
Trust is where decisions are won or lost
By the time shoppers reach the point of purchase, trust becomes the final hurdle. Reviews play a huge role…but rarely on their own.
Consumers described cross-checking across platforms, social channels and brand websites to build reassurance.
Around a third actively used brand websites to verify authenticity, specifications or origin. Most journeys touched several platforms before a decision was made. Shopping is no longer linear and trust is built in layers.
Category still matters too! Quality leads in furniture and electronics. Discovery is strongly social in health and beauty, while price carries more weight in fashion and lifestyle, always alongside credibility.
Exploring the Insight Behind the Partnership
By combining Meta’s expertise with BoltChatAI’s conversational depth, we were able to uncover not just what shoppers do across borders but why they hesitate, reassess and ultimately commit.
If you’d like to explore the findings in more detail, Meta has brought the full story together in a whitepaper based on this partnership, diving deeper into what it means for brands looking to grow beyond their home markets.
Get your copy of the whitepaper here.
