Europe continues to dominate global ecommerce ranking

The index scores 152 nations on their readiness for online shopping, worth an estimated USD 3.9 trillion globally in 2017, up 22% from the previous year. Europe remains by far the most prepared region for ecommerce, with eight countries ranking in the top 10 of a global index published on December 3, 2019.

For the second consecutive year, the Netherlands leads UNCTAD’s B2C ecommerce Index, followed by Switzerland. The only non-European countries on the top 10 list are Singapore (third) and Australia (10th).

Countries are scored on the access to secure internet servers, the reliability of postal services and infrastructure, and the portion of their population that uses the internet and has an account with a financial institution or mobile-money-service provider.

The 10 developing countries with the highest scores are all from Asia and classified as high-income or upper middle-income economies. At the other end of the spectrum, least developed countries occupy 18 of the 20 bottom positions. For example, in half a dozen European nations, more than 80% of internet users make purchases online. But that proportion is below 10% in most low and lower middle-income countries.

Changes in the 2019 rankings

The 2019 edition of the index includes some notable changes from the previous year. Iceland, New Zealand and Sweden dropped out of the top 10 list due to a decrease in their scores for secure servers and postal reliability (Iceland’s performance was particularly hampered by this indicator). Sweden also saw a drop in the portion of its population using the internet.

The three nations were replaced by Finland (jumping from 12th to fourth), Germany (bouncing from 16th to ninth) and Australia (moving from 11th to 10th).

Regarding the list of the top 10 developing economies, the main change was Chile’s fall from the group. The South American nation was replaced by Qatar, which rose in the ranks thanks to the increase of internet use in the country – practically the entire nation (99.7% of the population) is now online, according to data from the transport and communications ministry.

Despite Chile’s fall in the index, it held on to its top spot among countries from Latin America and the Caribbean. Mauritius achieved the best score in sub-Saharan Africa. And Belarus got the highest marks among transition economies.