Emerging countries are expected to play a bigger role in the e-commerce market by 2015, according to a new study by Forrester Research.
During last week’s NRF 101st Annual Convention & Expo, Forrester Research presented a study that showed the compound annual growth rates for the e-commerce market ranging from 53% in India, to 22% in China, 20% in Mexico and 18% in Brazil. The rates were significantly higher than the 10% forecast for Western Europe and 9% for the United States.
Forrester noted that as online retailers look to diversify their revenues internationally, an increasing number are looking beyond the mature markets of North America and Europe to the growing economies of Latin America and Asia. In China, e-commerce sales are forecast to approach $100 billion in 2012 and continue to grow at a rapid pace.
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In Brazil, Forrester forecasts that online retail revenues in the country, currently at $10 billion, will double over the next five years, with growth in Brazil’s online channel set to far outpace growth across traditional retail segments. Brazil currently accounts for approximately 40% of Latin America’s Internet users, remaining the powerhouse in the region.
Commenting on the research, Zia Daniell Wigder, Forrester’s eBusiness & channel strategy professionals, noted in her blog that the globalization process is still just beginning, since a handful of companies that operate e-commerce sites around the world and few of them have a truly global online footprint.
“The growing number of U.S.- and European-based companies that ship internationally will see revenues increase from these markets, but will start to hit a language ceiling,” she wrote. In addition, numbers of people prefer to shop from websites in their native language.
Wigder believes that 2012 will not be the year that e-commerce organizations blanket the globe with localized offerings – they will, however, continue stepping into international waters.
Among her bets, she noted that more brands will sell direct in international markets; international shippers will focus on consumers in specific markets; e-commerce companies’ “tier-one” markets will include multiple emerging markets; BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) will still be the acronym, but CBIR will be the order; and the mobile commerce gap will narrow substantially on global offerings.
