eCommerce is one of the most important growing industries in the world. Although it is an immensely competitive industry, new vendors can still find opportunities for staggering amounts of growth, and established vendors have become household names all around the globe. This article is a quick primer on some of the most impressive eCommerce facts circa 2022.
The eCommerce sector is growing – fast. Global eCommerce sales rose by almost 30 percent in 2020 alone. The terrible coronavirus pandemic gave a boost to the industry as people stayed away from in-person retail and took to their mobile devices and computers to meet their retail needs.
Also, Read: 6 Reasons Your Ecommerce Store Needs a Mobile App
As well as the increase in online sales, around 40 percent of all online purchases are now made via mobile devices. This has prompted a rethink of how eCommerce businesses have designed their sites, with mobile compatibility now being seen as a priority for many.
Dozens of parallel industries have sprung up around eCommerce. Site development, platform development, Shopify SEO services, fulfillment center providers, and a whole host of other important sectors rely entirely on the eCommerce trade. Automation and AI technology development have also been spearheaded by some companies working alongside eCommerce giants.
The biggest eCommerce companies have evolved into behemoths – household names with a stranglehold on huge areas of the market. Here are 3 of the most gargantuan eCommerce businesses:
Amazon is the largest eCommerce company in the world. It holds a whopping 39.5 of the market share for online sales in the United States. In recent years, the company has invested heavily in advanced technology to stay ahead of the curve.
Founded in 1995, eBay was one of the standout success stories of the Dot Com Bubble. At its core, eBay is an auction site – differing from other eCommerce sites by following a bid-based payment system. With the acquisition of Paypal, eBay cemented its place as a giant of the internet age.
With a worth of around 165 billion dollars, the Ali Baba Group is not an eCommerce empire to be sniffed at. This company – based in the People’s Republic of China – has fingers in many pies. Its most recent success has been the launch of Ali Express, an eCommerce site designed to allow Chinese vendors to sell to foreign buyers. It has around 200 million monthly visitors.
eCommerce is quickly becoming a ubiquitous retail service. Around 93.5 percent of the world’s internet users have made some kind of online purchase. Around 60 percent of the global population have access to the internet – a number that is likely to increase incrementally as infrastructure is rolled out across the world and projects like Starlink become more affordable for isolated communities. The near ubiquity of eCommerce has undoubtedly changed society’s expectations of retail. We now have an expectation that goods will be available for discount prices, be shipped quickly to our homes, and be backed up by swift customer services.
