Global e-commerce sales swell to 29 trillion USD in 2017: UN

GENEVA, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Global e-commerce sales grew 13 percent in 2017, hitting some 29 trillion U.S. dollar, according to the latest statistics released Friday by the United Nations body.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said there was a similar surge in the number of online shoppers, which jumped by 12 percent and stood at 1.3 billion, or one-quarter of the world's population.

"The new figures show that e-commerce is indeed creating export opportunities," UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi said.

"But the question from a development standpoint is whether businesses in developing countries are prepared to seize the opportunities," he said.

This question will be discussed at next week's ecommerce Week held from April 1 to 5 April in Geneva.

Little change occurred in the list of the top ten e-commerce markets, with the United States holding its top position.

At almost 9 trillion U.S. dollar, online sales there were three times higher than in Japan.

Though most internet buyers purchased goods and services from domestic vendors, the share of those buying from abroad climbed from 15 percent in 2015 to 21 percent in 2017.

The growth was driven mainly by an increase in the United States.

As a result, cross-border business-to-consumer (B2C) sales reached an estimated 412 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for almost 11 percent of total B2C e-commerce, a 4 percent hike on the preceding year's numbers.

The only change in the list was Germany overtaking South Korea as the fourth largest online market.

While business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce continued to dominate, accounting for 88 percent of all online sales, B2C (business-to-consumer) was the segment with the most growth, rising by 22 percent to reach 3.9 trillion U.S. dollars in 2017.

British consumers were still the most likely to shop on the internet, with 82 percent of people aged 15 and older making purchases online in 2017.