eMarketer: Global B2C e-commerce sales will reach $1.471 trillion in 2014

199IT original compilation

Asia Pacific saw the fastest growth, while North America and Western Europe remained strong.

New figures from eMarketer show that global B2C e-commerce sales will reach $1,471 billion in 2014, an increase of nearly 20%. As Internet applications around the world mature, e-commerce growth will slow, stabilizing at around 10% by 2018. However, sales in 2018 reached $2,356 billion, so 10% represents an increase of more than $200 billion.

eMarketer defines B2C e-commerce sales as all goods and services ordered or pre-purchased over the Internet, including leisure and unmanaged business travel.

By region, North America (including the United States and Canada) still has the highest share of B2C e-commerce sales in 2014, accounting for about one-third of global digital consumption. Previously, eMarketer predicted that the Asia-Pacific region would surpass North America this year, but data from 2013 and Q1 2014 showed that China's B2C e-commerce growth slowed faster than expected due to market maturity, and China is an important part of Asia-Pacific e-commerce sales, thus affecting the growth rate of Asia-Pacific.

eMarketer predicts that in 2015, Asia Pacific will lead the world in e-commerce sales, accounting for 33.4% of the total, while North America will account for 31.7% and Western Europe will account for 24.6%. Sales in these three regions account for about 90% of the global e-commerce market.

The growth of e-commerce sales in the Asia-Pacific region is dependent on the growth of digital buyers, as more consumers shop online, which naturally increases sales. However, by 2018, nearly 70% of Internet users in Western Europe and North America will shop online, while in the Asia-Pacific region, just over 50% will.

Asia Pacific has the largest number of consumers, but this region is more fragmented than North America and Western Europe, where e-commerce will continue to grow at double-digit rates in the coming years. In these two large markets, individual buyers consume more frequently and purchase higher-priced goods, and consumer behavior is relatively consistent across countries in these two regions.

In contrast, consumer behavior varies more widely between countries in the Asia-Pacific region. This year, China will account for more than half of e-commerce sales in the Asia-Pacific region, and its share will reach 70% by 2018. Australia and Japan are comparable to markets such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Western Europe in terms of buyer penetration and average order value. On the other hand, in less mature markets such as India and Indonesia, the absolute number of digital buyers is large, but many are new to online shopping. Due to the limitations of available goods and income, new digital buyers are more willing to dabble in low-priced purchases than to purchase high-priced items.

Compiled from: eMarketer Translator: Sun Ying