Hamburg-based secondary market research organization yStats.com synthesized top predictions about the world’s five largest online retail markets in a new publication “Top 5 Country B2C E-Commerce Sales: 2017 to 2021”. The study reveals that China and the USA are projected to remain in the lead by sales volume and also to outpace other countries in the top 5 by compound annual growth rate though the 2017-2021 forecast period.
The world’s five largest B2C E-Commerce markets are China, the USA, the UK, Japan and Germany. In 2017, these countries together accounted for more than three-quarters of global online retail sales, according to market estimates cited in the yStats.com report. Although this leadership is projected to continue through 2021, four out of the five countries are also expected to see their individual shares of global sales to decline, due to the expansion of number one E-Commerce market, China, and the growth of other emerging markets.
In five years to 2021, China is projected to see the highest annual growth rates in B2C E-Commerce sales among the five leaders, followed by the USA. These two countries are expected to maintain double-digit rates of compound annual growth over the forecast period, while for Germany, Japan and the UK multiple sources cited in the yStats.com report expect CAGR of less than 10%. Nevertheless, even in these countries online sales are projected to increase significantly faster than brick-and-mortar retail revenues. Consequently, B2C E-Commerce’s share of total retail sales is projected to expand across all five markets. In China and the UK, it could surpass the 20% threshold within the next few years.
The development of M-Commerce and omnichannel shopping are named among the main drivers of future growth in the world’s five largest online retail markets, according to yStats.com’s research. The mobile share of E-Commerce sales is already above 50% in China and is projected to reach this milestone in the USA and the UK by 2021. While the rates of adoption of mobile shopping are less advanced in Japan and Germany, these countries are also forecast to witness the expansion of M-Commerce sales at a rate higher than overall online retail.
