The APAC opportunity

Asia-Pacific is both the largest and fastest growing B2C e-commerce region in the world. This is evident form the latest Global B2C E-Commerce Report published by Ecommerce Foundation.

With an online turnover growth rate of 28.4%, it actually increased the gap with its two main competitors, North America (+13%) and Europe (+13%). With this growth, Asia-Pacific’s B2C e-commerce turnover amounted to $1,057 billion in 2015, which is nearly as much as the online sales of North America ($644 billion) and Europe ($505 billion) combined. These three regions were followed by Latin America and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), which did continue their strong growths. Respectively, their online turnovers reached $33 billion (+28%) and $26 billion (+19%).

Fastest growth in India
Asia-Pacific’s top ranking is mainly due to the presence of China, which owns the largest B2C e-commerce market in the world. But also India is reaching fort he top: Last year, Indian e-commerce grew by a staggering 129.5% and this trend is expected to continue as a growth rate of 75.8% is forecast for 2016. As a result, India is expected to become more and more important in the world of e-commerce and will definitely climb a few places over the next few years.

Big growth potential
The APAC region is a huge opportunity: On the one hand, internet penetration is still comparatively low and will give a huge boost tot he market when increasing further. Even a huge market like China still has an enourmous growth potential: Almost half of the population has no access tot he Internet yet.