Global e-commerce: +$2 trillion in revenue in 2019

One of the most important prerequisites for e-commerce is, of course, a functioning internet connection. Europe is very well positioned in this respect with the highest internet penetration rate (85%) in 2019. Internet penetration rates are also good in North America (84%) and the Middle East (78%). Asia/Oceania, on the other hand, came in last with just 53% internet penetration, meaning there will be many growth opportunities in this zone in coming years.

B2C e-commerce revenues are expected to rise to over 2 trillion USD in 2019. It is interesting to see how this revenue is distributed across the various regions of the world. It is astonishing that Asia/Oceania leads the list here with 44% of global sales generated in the region. This is of, course, thanks to the driving force China. The two following largest e-commerce regions are North America (26%) and Europe (22%).

According to the Ecommerce Foundation report, 72% of Europeans shop online. The United Kingdom counts the most online shoppers at 87%. Germany (83%) and France (76%) are close behind. Italy, on the other hand, is far behind with 48% of its population shopping online. European shoppers spent an average of 1,715 USD online in 2019.

The growth in mobile shopping in Europe is also interesting to see, with a split in the direction of 50% mobile and 50% desktop. In almost all major European countries, more than 40% of online shoppers also make purchases via mobile devices. With a 49% share, Spain is particularly in line with this trend. Retailers and brands must therefore ensure their content is also adapted to mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets. Nothing is more annoying for e-shoppers than incorrectly displayed shopping pages. Today, mobile is at least as important as the desktop in Europe.

In 2019, China has an average internet penetration rate of 61% of its enormous 1.44 billion people. 59% of the China’s ‘internet population’ shop online. B2C e-commerce sales in China are expected to reach 723 billion USD in 2019.

The increase in new e-shoppers in China is enormous – increasing from 27.59 million in 2008 to over 76 million in 2018. Most of these new shoppers make purchases via mobile devices. China, for example, is far ahead of Europe in this area: 65% of internet users use smartphones or tablets when shopping. Only 36% still shop via desktop…

China’s most visited e-commerce site is Taobao. Taobao belongs to the Alibaba Group, which controls 53.3% of the market. The second strongest force is JD.com with 16% of the market share.

In 2019, the US counts an impressive 90% internet penetration rate among its 329.44 million inhabitants. B2C e-commerce revenues are expected to grow to $547 billion in 2019. More than 82% of Americans are e-shoppers. In 2019, 44.7% of these shoppers also ordered products online via smartphones. This figure is expected to rise to almost 54% by 2024, making it more important than the desktop.

Very specific to the US is Amazon. The marketplace dominates the e-commerce market and leads in most categories, including electronics, handbags and accessories. To illustrate the dominant position, 80.1% of Americans surveyed in 2018 stated that when they search online for gifts, they begin with Amazon; Walmart follows in second place with 56.7%.

The following chart shows the numbers of the largest US online retailers in early 2019, Amazon is far ahead of its competition:

Images: Ecommerce Foundation, Pixabay (geralt)

Sources: Ecommerce Report: Global 2019, Ecommerce Report: China 2019, Ecommerce Report: USA 2019, Disfold