ISLAMABAD: E-commerce sales hit $25.6 trillion globally in 2018, with more than 1.45 billion people or one-quarter of the world’s population shopping online, estimates released by the United Nations Conference Trade and Development show. The 2018 sales were up 8 per cent from 2017 when value of global e-commerce was estimated at $23.8tr, UNCTAD said in its report.
According to the UN body’s analysis, the estimated 2018 e-commerce sales value, which includes business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) sales, was equivalent to 30pc of global GDP that year.
“The coronavirus crisis has accelerated the uptake of digital solutions, tools and services, but the overall impact on the value of e-commerce in 2020 is still hard to predict,” said UNCTAD Director of Technology and Logistics, Shamika Sirimanne.
The value of global B2B e-commerce in 2018 was $21tr, representing 83pc of all e-commerce, comprising both sales on online market platforms and electronic data interchange transactions.
Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2020
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