Spectacular eCommerce growth in Asia-Pacific region

Online sales in China, Japan, South Korea, India and Australia will double to 1,400 billion dollars by 2020. The majority of the increase will be thanks to China, but India will be the one with the biggest growth, according to market researcher Forrester.

Chinese eCommerce larger than American

Despite the weaker Chinese economy over the past few months, as growth dropped below 7 % for the first time since 2009, China is still the dominant force in eCommerce. It took the lead in 2015, surpassing the United States, and will head for a 1,100 billion dollar (999 billion euro) total online turnover.

“While the days of staggering year over year e-commerce growth in China are gone, current growth rates are solid and more consistent with other mature markets in the region, like Japan and South Korea”, Forrester analyst Lily Varon said. Chinese eCommerce activities will be 9 times as large as the Japanese (122 billion dollars) in 2020 and an astonishing 17 times larger than the South Korean online market (65 billion dollar).

India fastest grower

India is now the fastest grower in the region and according to Forrester, its eCommerce turnover will quintuple from 12 to 75 billion dollars (some 8 billion euro) by 2020. The market experiences spectacular growth as an increasing number of Indians now shop online, while their average spend is also on the rise. That is also why the Indian eCommerce industry is attracting plenty of investments.

Forrester does warn the local trade culture is still heavily reliant on cash and has an underdeveloped logistics network with too few distribution centers for such a vast nation. To compound its problems, it also suffers from mobility issues, which would make home deliveries a huge undertaking.