For 2015, the B2C ecommerce growth rate is expected to decline considerably, as the market is growing more and more mature. However, it will still grow by double digits (around 16%), resulting in a turnover of USD2,251 billion, according to the Global B2C E-commerce Report 2015, issued by the Ecommerce Foundation, in cooperation with Ecommerce Europe and GfK. In addition, the report is powered by GlobalCollect | Ingenico.
“Another interesting tool to measure the importance of B2C e-commerce on a worldwide scale is the share of e-commerce in the Gross Domestic Product (GPD)”, according to Jorij Abraham, Director of the Ecommerce Foundation. “In 2014, 2.64% of the world’s GDP was spent on purchasing goods and services online. At first glance, this does not seem as a lot, but this share has grown by more than 100% since 2010. This indicates the enormous growth of B2C ecommerce over the last few years.”
Asia-Pacific was the largest ecommerce market in the world in 2014. Its total B2C ecommerce turnover amounted to USD 770.0 billion, which was higher than Europe’s (USD 567.0 billion) and North America’s (USD 522.9 billion). Asia-Pacific’s B2C ecommerce market even widened the gap as it is currently growing at a much faster pace than the others. In 2014, it grew by 44.3%, against 13.9% for Europe and 12.2% for North America.
These large differences are interesting, especially when considering the region’s internet penetrations. Whereas in the more developed regions of Europe and North America, around 75% of the population is connected to the internet, only 39% of the Asian-Pacific citizens is able to go online. In combination with the increasing income per capita and improving retail infrastructure, Asia-Pacific’s B2C ecommerce turnover is expected to rise even more strongly in the near future.
Despite the low internet penetration, Asia-Pacific still has the largest number of e-shoppers. This is because more than half of the world’s population lives in this region. In total, 523.1 million Asian-Pacific citizens purchased goods and/or services through the internet. In Europe, this number amounted to 273.9 million e-shoppers and in North America to 195.5 million.
With regard to the average spending per e-shopper, North America is clearly in the lead. On average, North American consumers spent USD 2,674 online in 2014, compared to USD 2,070 in Europe and USD 1,472 in Asia-Pacific. However, Asia-Pacific is closing the gap. Its average spending per e-shopper grew by more than 26% in 2014, against single-digit growths in the other two regions.
Abraham claims that the online turnover of this ecommerce region increased by 63.8% in 2014, to USD 538.1 billion. Therefore, it augmented its its lead on the US ecommerce market, which grew by 11.7% to USD 482.7 billion. Behind these two major markets, the UK ranked third, with a B2C ecommerce turnover of usd 169.0 billion. Yet, in terms of average spending per e-shopper, the UK leads the way. In 2014, UK e-shoppers each spent USD 4,082 on average.
US online shoppers ranked second with USD 2,888, followed by the French with USD 2,126. China is somewhat lagging behind, but at USD 1,703, the average spending per e-shopper increased by more than 55% in 2014. As a result, China is closing the gap here as well.
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