Asia Pacific e-commerce to double in 5 years

China, Japan, South Korea, India, and Australia are tipped to fuel e-commerce growth in Asia Pacific in the next five years.

According to research and advisory firm Forrester, total online retail revenues will nearly double from $733 billion in 2015 to $1.4 trillion in 2020. For perspective, $1.4 trillion is about the same amount spent online in 2015 in every market that Forrester forecasts across the globe combined.

In its latest report, Asia Pacific Online Retail Forecast 2015 to 2020, Forrester looks at the growth in these markets over the next five years and some of the key trends shaping the development of online retail in each one of the above-mentioned markets.

Lily Varon, lead author of the Forrester report and analyst for e-business and channel strategy, wrote on the Forrester blog’ that China’s e-commerce market is growing despite an economic slowdown.

In a turning point in global e-commerce in 2015, China surpassed the US to become the largest e-commerce market in the world, but its economy also dipped below 7 per cent for the first time since 2009. While the days of staggering year over year e-commerce growth in China are behind us, current growth rates are solid and more consistent with other mature markets in the region, like Japan and South Korea.

Varon wrote that India is the fastest growing e-commerce market in the region, but is not without its obstacles. India is the smallest e-commerce market in Forrester’s forecast. But India’s online sales will grow by more than five-fold by 2020 as the number of online buyers and per capita online spending increase rapidly. However, in addition to underdeveloped logistics and challenging last-mile connectivity, India's cash-based culture still poses a challenge for e-commerce firms, Varon said.

According to the forecast, Japan, South Korea and Australia are mature e-commerce markets, with each of these countries having all of the right characteristics: high Internet and broadband subscriber penetration, a large percentage of online shoppers, and high per-capita online spending.

But each market has unique characteristics that e-commerce leaders operating in these markets, or thinking about doing so, need to know and consider when crafting their offerings, the forecast said.