Due to the Covid-19 restrictions, the e-commerce rate saw an influx in most of the countries. Since the people were not allowed to go out and had to get their hands on some important stuff such as household items, groceries, etc., online shopping was the only solution. The E-commerce penetration rate is traditionally higher in highly populated but developed countries. The infographic below shows the e-commerce penetration rate in highly developed markets in 2020, and according to it, UK leads the race with 84%. eMarketer revealed that 27.5 percent of the total retail sales were by Britons.
The penetration rate and e-commerce’s intensity are proportional, but the penetration rate doesn’t clearly show how frequently online shopping is done by the people of a country. Unfortunately, the larger the market, the slower it will move, and hence, the USA rests at second with the e-commerce penetration rate of 77 percent but still accounts for only 14.5 percent of the total e-commerce retail sales. On the other hand, Japan shares the same penetration rate as the USA but chalks up more for the retail sales to e-commerce than the USA.
China has an incredibly growing e-commerce market, where 44 percent of the e-commerce retail sales are made even though a third of China’s population has not made a single purchase online as yet. Other emerging countries in the chart below include Brazil and India with lower penetration rates, i.e., 49 and 40 percent, respectively.
Infographic by: Statista.com
