May 04, 2021

Anna Murray 

Founded in 1964 as part of the United Nations Secretariat working at the national, regional, and global level, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) always puts contingent efforts to economically integrate 195 countries to develop globalization, including a phenomenal expansion of trade with the goal for prosperity for all the world citizens. On May 3 one of the UNCTAD technical notes on ICT (information and communications technology) for development, named “Estimates of Global E-Commerce 2019 and Preliminary Assessment of COVID-19 Impact on Online Retail 2020”, was published to reveal COVID-19 impact on e-commerce worldwide.

The data analyzed by UNCTAD included business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) sales, equivalent to 30% of global gross domestic product (GDP) per year. According to the UNCTAD report, total e-commerce retail sales rise dramatically from 16% to 19% in 2020. In particular, online retail sales recorded the highest growth in the Republic of Korea at 25.9% in 2020, up from 2019's 20.8%. UNCTAD estimated 1.48 billion people, more than one-quarter of the world’s population aged 15 and older, shopped online in 2019 which is 7% higher than in 2018. The global e-commerce sales increased remarkably US$ 26.7 trillion in 2019, up 4% from 2018.

E-commerce has been emerging as a new business means for enterprises to compete in an increasingly competitive and global market. And e-commerce is helping entrepreneurs and micro and small enterprises (MSEs) to compete effectively and boost their profile and profits. As observed in the press, about 17,500 main street stores were closed amid the coronavirus crisis. However, people have been turning to make purchases online, leading to great success for e-commerce start-ups. The advantages of e-commerce are recognized to offer more business opportunities, competitiveness, economic growth, and better access to retail. 

Photo:webshot.