Retail e-commerce is maintaining its impressive growth irrespective of market size, according to the 2015 global retail e-commerce index published by AT Kearney, a leading global management consulting firm.
The world’s largest markets for e-commerce dominate the top half of the top 30, led by the US, China, and the UK. In the bottom half are some smaller markets, such as Mexico, whose potential for growth is impossible to ignore.
Across the world, the last year brought a continuation of the impressive growth of retail e-commerce. Sales increased more than 20 per cent worldwide in 2014 to almost 840 billion US Dollar, as online retailers continued expanding to new geographies and physical retailers entered new markets through e-commerce. Perhaps the biggest expression of this boom was in the stock markets, which gave e-commerce companies skyrocketing valuations. This was highlighted by Alibaba’s record-setting 25 billion US Dollar initial public offering in September, which valued the China-based company at about 170 billion US Dollar.
The survey found electronic goods, apparel and books among the most popular online categories. In the past three months, 77 per cent of online shoppers have bought electronic goods, 76 per cent have bought apparel and 73 per cent bought books.