Global e-commerce hits $25.6 trillion: UNCTAD

E-commerce sales hit $25.6 trillion globally in 2018, up by 8 per cent from 2017, according to the latest available estimates released today by the UN’s trade and development body, UNCTAD, at the start of its UNCTAD eWeek event.
The online event will explore digital solutions and policies to help the world recover from the coronavirus crisis. It runs from April 27 to May 1 and features dialogues among ministers, heads of international organisations, business executives and civil society representatives.
According to the UNCTAD analysis, the estimated 2018 e-commerce sales value, which includes business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) sales, was equivalent to 30 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) that year.
"The coronavirus crisis has accelerated the uptake of digital solutions, tools and services, but the overall impact on the value of e-commerce in 2020 is still hard to predict,” said UNCTAD’s director of technology and logistics Shamika Sirimanne.
The 2017 value of global e-commerce was estimated at $23.8 trillion, based on a revised methodology.
The value of global B2B e-commerce in 2018 was $21 trillion, representing 83 per cent of all e-commerce, comprising both sales on online market platforms and electronic data interchange transactions. “B2C e-commerce was valued at $4.4 trillion, up by 16 per cent from 2017,” it reads, adding that cross-border B2C e-commerce sales amounted to $404 billion in 2018, representing an increase of 7 per cent over 2017. “The United States continued to dominate the overall e-commerce market as it remained among the top three countries by B2C e-commerce sales, alongside China and the United Kingdom.”
The leading B2C e-commerce companies are based mostly in China and the United States. The world’s top 10 B2C companies in 2018 generated almost $2 trillion in gross merchandise value (GMV), according to the report.
Alibaba (China) was far ahead with a GMV of $866 billion in 2018, followed by Amazon (United States) with $277 billion. However, in terms of revenue, JD.com (China) and Amazon were ahead of Alibaba.
Developing and transition economies accounted for about half of the top 20 economies by B2C e-commerce sales. In relation to GDP, B2C e-commerce in these economies was the largest in Hong Kong (China), China and the United Kingdom, and smallest in India, Brazil and Russia.
Among the top 20 economies, the extent to which Internet users engage in online purchases varies considerably. For example, in 2018, 87 per cent of Internet users in the United Kingdom shopped online, compared with only 14 per cent in Thailand and 11 per cent in India. “More than 1.4 billion people shopped online and more bought from abroad,” it reads.
UNCTAD estimates that 1.45 billion people, or one quarter of the world’s population aged 15 and older, made purchases online in 2018, which is 9 per cent higher than in 2017. China had the largest number of online shoppers at 610 million, according to the report. While the bulk of online shoppers mainly bought from domestic suppliers, some 330 million online shoppers made cross-border purchases in 2018, a little more than one in five of all online shoppers.
The interest in buying from foreign suppliers continued to expand. The share of cross-border online shoppers to all online shoppers rose from 17 per cent in 2016 to 23 per cent in 2018.
“Still the number of online shoppers, while huge, is an indication of the scale of the digital divide and the future market potential of e-commerce, both of which need to be addressed,” Sirimanne added.
Today only half of the world’s 7.7 billion people are connected to the internet and its benefits. This limits the ability of many developing countries to use digital solutions to cope with the current health and economic crisis.

Global e-commerce sales surges

Global e-commerce sales grew by 13 per cent in 2017, hitting an estimated $29 trillion, according to the latest numbers released today by UNCTAD.
A similar surge was seen in the number of online shoppers, which jumped by 12 per cent and stood at 1.3 billion people, or one quarter of the world’s population. Though most internet buyers purchased goods and services from domestic vendors, the share of those buying from abroad rose from 15 per cent in 2015 to 21 per cent in 2017. The growth was driven mainly by an increase in the United States.
As a result, cross-border business-to-consumer (B2C) sales reached an estimated $412 billion, accounting for almost 11 per cent of total B2C e-commerce –a 4 per cent hike on the previous year’s numbers. “The new figures show that e-commerce is indeed creating export opportunities,” UNCTAD secretary-general Mukhisa Kituyi said.
“But the question from a development standpoint is whether businesses in developing countries are prepared to seize the opportunities,” he said, adding that this will be discussed at next week’s eCommerce Week, held from April 1 to 5 at the United Nation’s European headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
Little change occurred in the list of the top ten e-commerce markets, with the United States holding on to its top position. At almost $9 trillion, online sales there were three times higher than in Japan and more than four times higher than in China.
The only shuffle in the list was Germany’s overtaking of the Republic of Korea as the fourth largest online market.
While business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce continued to dominate – accounting for 88 per cent of all online sales – B2C was the segment that saw the most growth, increasing by 22% to reach $3.9 trillion in 2017.
In the B2C realm, China increased its lead on the United States, while the United Kingdom held on to third place. But UK consumers were still the most likely to shop on the internet, with a whopping 82 per cent of people aged 15 and older making purchases online in 2017. Overall, however, China had the largest number of internet buyers at 440 million.