Asia Pacific houses the biggest country market for e-commerce (China) and the nation with the second highest e-commerce per capita consumption in value terms (South Korea). As a region, it therefore houses highly developed e-commerce countries, but also others, such as India, with major potential for growth. Although growth rates were generally slowing in 2022, as most countries emerged from the pandemic, e-commerce will continue to see healthy annual sales increases over the forecast period.
This report comes in PPT.
The pandemic provided further impetus for social media to emerge as a powerful tool for e-commerce in China. With the proliferation of mobile devices and the exponential increase in social media usage, retailers and brand owners were using social media to engage with consumers. Livestreaming in particular gained immense popularity as a result of social distancing and stay-at-home measures, with brand owners and retailers leveraging KOLs and KOCs to promote their products and generate sales.
While some e-tailers are working with small local grocers like kiranas in India as fulfilment sites for last-mile delivery/pickup of products ordered online, others are exploring lockers to keep down delivery costs. Shared delivery lockers, such as PUDO Station, a system operated by Packcity Japan, are becoming increasingly available, with more than 6,000 lockers across Japan. These shared lockers enable buyers to pick up their purchases at a convenient location, also avoiding the need for redeliveries if a recipient is not at home for doorstep delivery.
Operating with an omnichannel presence remains a key strategy for retailers, generally seen as store-based players boosting their online presence. But it can cut the other way, with popular South Korean fashion e-commerce player Musinsa, for example, having opened its second flagship store in Gangnam in 2022. Musinsa’s offline expansion is an attempt to engage a wider group of shoppers beyond its key customer group aged in their 10s to their 30s.
The intriguing situation in Indian e-commerce sees the world’s leading store-based retailer, Walmart, just ahead of the US e-tailing giant Amazon. Walmart entered Indian e-commerce with its acquisition of Flipkart, which operates the biggest online marketplace in the country, having thrived by copying the low-cost model of Amazon. With the pair already holding more than 80% of e-commerce sales, the tussle for spot should keep both players on their toes.
Retail is the sale of new and used goods to consumers from a business for personal or household consumption from retail outlets, kiosks, market stalls, vending, direct selling and e-commerce. Retail is the aggregation of Retail Offline and Retail E-Commerce. Excludes specialist retailers of motor vehicles, motorcycles, vehicle parts. Also excludes fuel sales, foodservice sales, rental transactions, and wholesale sales (e.g. Cash and Carry). Sales value excluding or including VAT/Sales Tax. Retail also excludes the informal retail sector. Informal retailing is retail trade which is not declared to the tax authorities. Informal retailing encompasses (a) sales generated by unregistered and unlicensed retailers, i.e. retailers operating illegally, and (b) any proportion of sales generated by a registered and licensed retailer that is not declared to the tax authorities. Unregistered and unlicensed retailers operate predominantly (although not exclusively) as street hawkers or operate open market stalls, as these channels are harder for the authorities to monitor than permanent outlets. Activities in the illegal market, which is usually understood to refer to trade in illegal, counterfeit or stolen merchandise, are included within our definition of informal retailing. Activities in the “grey market”, which is usually understood to refer to trade in legal merchandise that is sold through unauthorized channels – for example cigarettes bought legally in another country, legally imported, but sold at lower prices than in authorized channels – will be included as informal retailing if no tax is paid on sale by the retailer. However if the retailer pays tax – for example on cigarettes bought legally in another country but sold at a lower price than standard – the sale is included within formal retail.
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