Emerging e-commerce markets projected to generate $4 trillion by '22

Emerging markets are on the brink of a major digital revolution," says Nimisha Jain, a BCG partner in New Delhi

The value of digitally influenced spending in emerging markets will be around $ 4 trillion by 2022 and will amount to about half of all retail spending in Asia, Latin America and Africa, says a report.

According to the report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), by 2022, there will be $ 3.9 trillion in digitally influenced expenditures in emerging markets.

Besides, in four years time, emerging markets will account for as many as 3 billion online users, which is three times the number in developed markets.

"Emerging markets are on the brink of a major digital revolution," Nimisha Jain, a BCG partner in New Delhi said adding that the share of digitally influenced retail in total retail spending will surge from 33 per cent in 2017 to 47 per cent by 2022.

Smartphone penetration doubled in emerging markets between 2013 and 2017, from 22 per cent to 44 per cent, and smartphones are the preferred way for people in these markets to access the internet.
 

Overall, e-commerce in emerging markets will grow from about 15 per cent of all retail sales in 2017 to 20 per cent in 2022, BCG said adding that the online portion of retail in China already exceeds that of the UK (16 per cent), the US (13 per cent), and Germany and France (11 per cent each).

China is now in the 'digitally evolved' category and 39 per cent of retail spending in China is digitally influenced.

Brazil, India, and Indonesia (which are in the 'digitally advancing' category) have high digital influence levels of 35 per cent, 14 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively, but relatively low levels of online spending (between 3-5 per cent).
 

The report was led by BCG's Centre for Customer Insights (CCI) and is based on a survey of more than 15,000 urban internet users in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Morocco, the Philippines, and South Africa.

BCG's report comes at a time when emerging markets are growing at three times the rate of developed markets and contributing much of the world's growth.