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B2C E-Commerce in Central Asia and Caucasus is gaining momentum in the last year reports yStats.com

Hamburg-based secondary market research specialist yStats.com has released a new publication summarizing the latest trends in E-Commerce of Central Asia & Caucasus. Among the findings of the report “Central Asia & Caucasus B2C E-Commerce Market 2019: Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia” is the development that B2C E-Commerce market in Central Asia and Caucasus continue to grow.

B2C E-Commerce is only starting to evolve in the Central Asia and Caucasus region. Internet penetration is still below 50% in the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, and access to financial services reaches over half of the population in only Kazakhstan and Georgia. However, as the report by yStats.com shows, as infrastructure improves and Internet penetration increases, B2C E-Commerce in the countries of Central Asia and Caucasus could grow as well.

Kazakhstan has the strongest B2C E-Commerce market in the region

Kazakhstan is the largest market in the Central Asia and Caucasus region. However, online retail has much room for growth. B2C E-Commerce accounted for below three percent of total retail sales in Kazakhstan in 2018. According to another source, online retailing will only break this three percent barrier by 2021. Through investing in various economic and social spheres, Kazakhstan is developing the online economy given consumer interest in online shopping, as yStats.com’s report shows.

B2C E-Commerce in Azerbaijan is still at early stages of development

Another country with rapid B2C E-Commerce growth is Azerbaijan, according to yStats.com’s findings.  Despite B2C E-Commerce in Azerbaijan still at early stages of development, between 2016 and 2017, online retail sales increased nearly three-fold. E-commerce has grown due to the country’s high Internet penetration rate, the highest in the Central Asia and Caucasus region. Almost eight in ten people in the country surfed the Internet in 2017. The second driving force for online retailing’s further development could be the young and tech-savvy population; in 2017, the largest age group among Internet users was individuals under 24 years old.

Georgia demonstrates significant potential for B2C E-Commerce growth

Among selected countries in Central Asia and Caucasus, Georgia had the highest financial institution account ownership in 2017, which is a right step towards developed E-Commerce infrastructure. Almost a third of Internet users in Georgia used the net to search for information about goods and services and a smaller share made purchases online in 2018, yStats.com finds. Despite the relatively low online shopper rate, online retailing in the country has a potential to grow under increasing interest in cross-border shopping and improving logistics services.

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