E-commerce and the accompanying demand for e-commerce fulfilment are continuing to grow as business sectors. Last year, the world e-commerce market reached 22% of the population (Hootsuite, 2017).
The line between e-commerce and m-commerce narrows more and more. The use of e-commerce in 2017 reached 22% of the world’s population and half of the users who bought through the Internet do so through mobile devices. This is evident in the Global In 2017 report on digital trends developed by the agency We Are Social in collaboration with Hootsuite.
E-commerce in the world has an unequaled reach
The development of e-commerce in the world is uneven. Thus, the European market is in a process of maturity whose growth has slowed compared to other countries such as India, Thailand or Indonesia. In Spain, for example, the number of users of e-commerce has reached 58% of the population, only 1% more than the previous year, in which 57% of Internet users said they had bought online in the previous month.
In general terms, the countries with the highest percentage of the population that use e-commerce are the United Kingdom, South Korea, Germany, Japan and the United States.
In the United Kingdom, the percentage of the population that has purchased something through e-commerce in the reference month of the study reached 76 per cent; 72 per cent in the case of South Korea and Germany; 68 per cent in Japan and 67 per cent in the United States. Spain is in an intermediate situation, but it is still far from these percentages.
Asia, leader in m-commerce penetration
As for the countries with the highest percentage of the population that uses e-commerce in the world through mobile phones, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, Thailand, China and Singapore stand out. The countries with the highest growth in the number of m-commerce users are Indonesia, with an increase of 155%; Japan, with 101%; Philippines, with 85%; India, with 68% and Mexico, with 64%.
Countries such as France, Germany or the United States have experienced lower growth in the last year, as they are already more developed.
The global value of e-commerce transactions in the world in 2016 was 1.9 trillion dollars (1.8 trillion euros). The countries that lead the average annual expenditure on purchases of electronic commerce per user are the United Kingdom, with 2,033 dollars (1,923 euros); United States, with 1,630 dollars (1,542 euros); Canada, with 1,052 (995 euros); Germany, with 1,050 (953 euros); and Singapore with an average of 1,022 dollars (922 euros) per online buyer.
Where is global e-commerce going?
In the report, Hootsuite aims its perspectives on electronic commerce and highlights that the separation between e-commerce and m-commerce is very diffuse. Likewise, it points out that successes such as Facebook Live and other applications such as Facebook Marketplace will give more opportunities for social commerce, a line in which we will surely see Facebook bet.
On the other hand, We Are Social stresses that in the next twelve months more than 2 billion dollars will be spent in the world acquiring products and services through the Internet and that a large number of people will make their first online purchase.
The development of more specific and appropriate m-commerce services and the optimisation of payment systems through mobile phones will help to offer greater variety and convenience to buyers. However, before brands can take full advantage of these opportunities, they need to focus more on integrating all of their marketing actions, and online and offline activity.
