The global e-commerce market in 2021 was valued at US$14.30 trillion and is likely to reach US$52.06 trillion by 2027. In the past few years, sales via e-commerce platforms have been increasing very rapidly. E-commerce has evolved dramatically throughout the years.
According to ResearchAndMarkets.com new research study, the advancement of both tech hardware and the internet over the last decade has had a direct association with e-commerce. E-commerce has developed to rival traditional shopping in many respects, much as the internet has become the preferred medium for marketing, advertising, and purchase of products, goods, and services.
E-commerce is a platform for buyers and sellers to engage in order to buy or sell goods and services online. The online platforms are accessible over the internet and can be accessed via a mobile phone, laptop, or computer. The ongoing rise of e-commerce is inevitable, driven by the proliferation of mobile and ubiquitous internet.
Traditional brick-and-mortar categories are seeing a rapid shift to online. The global e-commerce market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 26.55% during the forecast period of 2022-2027.
Global E-commerce Market Dynamics:
Growth Drivers
Young consumers, mainly millennials and Gen Z, are digital natives, both familiar and comfortable with using technology in their everyday lives. Further, they shop online because of the factors such as low prices, flexible returns, and same delivery.
Further, the market is expected to increase due to increasing internet connectivity, rising penetration of smartphones, increasing adoption of m-commerce, rapid urbanization, growing acceptance of digital transactions, expansion in regional localization of internet content, elevating shopping experience, etc., in recent years.
Challenges
The e-commerce industry is known to be the highest vulnerable industry in terms of cybersecurity. Malware attacks hijack the targeted user’s system, web server, and all the confidential data for some time and demand a certain amount of money in exchange for returning the user’s data. It is a threat to e-commerce websites as it loses the trust of customers.
Therefore, the rising malware applications would negatively impact the growth of the e-commerce market. Additionally, other factors like ambiguity with cross-border trade, asymmetry in information (virtual v/s reality), etc. are some challenges to the market.
Ecommerce Trends
The advent of 5G technology would provide a potential opportunity to enhance the shopping experience of consumers and ease application in many different industries. 5G network is considered a powerful tool to support applications such as VR and AR in the e-commerce industry. Hence, it can be expected that the potential of 5G would further create significant synergies that yield digital transformation in e-commerce in the coming years.
More trends in the market are believed to grow the e-commerce market during the forecasted period, which may include the growing influence of social media, expansion of e-commerce share in total retail sales, escalating use of search engine optimization, the rising popularity of self-service platforms, rising adoption of omnichannel platforms, growing trend of green consumerism, technological innovations, integrating augmented reality and virtual reality in the e-commerce industry, etc.
Impact Analysis of COVID-19 and Way Forward
The global e-commerce market was impacted in many ways by the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 brought in many changes in the world, digital transformation of economic activities was seen taking place rapidly, in addition to this, the world witnessed limiting shopping (the purchase of only essential goods or services), growing startups entering the online business, a major jump in its purchases in hardware and sporting goods, and greater reliance on real-time and digital payments.
The changes brought in by COVID-19, such as the rapid shift to online, mobile-first, omnichannel, etc., are looked to have a long-term impact in the post-COVID era.
Competitive Landscape and Recent Developments
When compared to a past few years ago, today’s e-commerce world is nearly unrecognizable. Due to the pandemic, online retail has risen to prominence and become a requirement for many companies. As a result, the market is considered fragmented, and strong rivalry is likely in the upcoming years. Many companies are employing various techniques to maintain their position in the e-commerce market.
Full Report
Get the full “Global E-Commerce Market: Analysis By Product Categories, By Model Type (Business to Business and Business to Consumers, By Region Size and Trends with Impact of COVID-19 and Forecast up to 2027” report by ResearchAndMarkets.com.
