Consumers´ Cross-Border Shopping Behaviour in the City of Konstanz

A significant and sudden change in the Swiss franc exchange rate has led to a sharp rise in cross-border shopping in German border towns. For German businesses, the appearance of massive streams of visitors from their neighbouring country is a gratifying and highly lucrative development. A survey of passers-by in the Konstanz marketplace was conducted to shed more light on cross-border consumer behaviour. To investigate the proportion of Swiss consumers, their purchasing power, purchasing preferences and motives of shoppers, five hypotheses were derived, and data were collected, analysed and evaluated. Overall, there are some remarkable differences between the behaviour of Swiss and German visitors to the Konstanz marketplace. Consumers from Switzerland generally visit the marketplace less often but bring a significantly higher budget with them. They are also generally more satisfied with the Konstanz marketplace. Surprisingly, despite the price levels, VAT refunds play a subordinate role for Swiss customers.