Nearly, 4.1 billion consumers from all regions accessed the online medium and the majority of them purchased goods and/or services, according to the Global B2C E-commerce Report issued by the non-profit online commerce consultancy Ecommerce Foundation.
For 2014, a growth of 22.9% is forecast, resulting in a global B2C ecommerce turnover of USD 1,907 billion. In 2015, B2C ecommerce is expected to grow by 18% to reach USD 2,251 billion.
At a total B2C ecommerce turnover of USD 482.3 billion and USD 452.4 billion, respectively, Europe and North America are among the top regions in this regard. However, in 2013 they were overtaken by Asia-Pacific for the number one position. For a large part, and thanks to rise of China, the Asia Pacific region accounted for B2C ecommerce sales of USD 567.3 billion. Latin America recorded B2C ecommerce growth of USD 33.2 billion (21.4%) while MENA recorded USD 14.7 billion (32.6%) increase.
With total B2C ecommerce sales of USD 419 billion, the US is still the clear leader in the world, but the emergence of second-ranked China is remarkable. Partly due to the success of ecommerce giant Alibaba, Chinese B2C ecommerce grew by 78.5% to USD 328.4 billion. For 2014, China is even forecast to surpass the US and become the world’s new leader in terms of ecommerce. Behind these two countries, there is a considerable gap to the UK (USD 142.3 billion), Japan (USD 136.7billion) and Germany (USD 84.2billion), which complete the top 5.
People from North America and Europe were, on average, the biggest spenders in the world in 2013, as they spent USD 1,928 and USD 1,828, respectively. In comparison, in Asia-Pacific the average econsumer spent USD 1,268 in 2013. With regard to the online expenditure per e-shoppers in countries, the UK ranked head and shoulders above the rest in this regard. At USD 3,471, the UK is ahead of the US (USD 2,216) and Australia (USD 2,167).
Check out our Cross-border Ecommerce Research section here for more info on country-specific ecommerce facts and figures, preferred payment methods, risk and fraud, as well as ecommerce legislation and regulation for mature and emerging markets.
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