Internet buying is booming in Southeast Asia with revenues indicating the region will be one of the fastest-growing markets in the world in 2014, new research suggests.
Business-to-consumer e-commerce revenues are expected to increase at a 37.6 per cent annual growth rate over the next four years, according to businessmirror.com. This means that the $7 billion in revenue that was taken in 2013 could soar as high as $34.5 billion by 2018.
Countries responsible for the surge in e-commerce are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore – the latter of which has the largest market within Southeast Asia ($1.7 billion in revenue taken in 2013).
Marc Einstein of Frost & Sullivan, the company behind the research, said: “Per capita income is rising in Southeast Asia and more consumers are using the internet through personal computers, smartphones and tablets.
“Given the rapid adoption of e-commerce [in China], we believe that e-commerce will grow rapidly in Southeast Asia countries where e-commerce still represents less than two per cent of all retail sales in most countries.”
Despite the growth, many retailers in the region are still behind the times when it comes to e-commerce payment processes and data analysis, reports thenextweb.com, and few have the necessary technology to do online retail effectively.
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