Countries with the Most Opportunities for Online Sales | Sales Layer

Countries with the Most Opportunities for Online Sales in 2022

Table of Contents

  1. The biggest B2C ecommerce markets in the world

  2. Technologies for an international ecommerce sales strategy

  3. How to adapt your business to sell online internationally

Thanks to the digital transformation, online outlets are proving to be the most lucrative for traditional businesses. In a marketplace where changes in consumption habits coupled with external factors have meant people are turning more to online shopping, companies are rushing to analyze what new markets they can position themselves in.

Choosing which regions and countries to sell your products to will depend on the niche, industry, audience, and logistical resources available to your company (since expanding your market will increase the efforts needed for distribution, catalog management, and control of legal aspects).

Taking a look at global online sales trends can also provide clues to your strategy.

According to the Global Ecommerce Report prepared by the Ecommerce Foundation on the world’s leading B2C ecommerce countries in 2019:

The world’s biggest B2C ecommerce markets for online sales

North America

This is one of the biggest ecommerce markets in the world, showing very attractive prospects for online businesses in all its regions, with 82% of the population buying online in the United States, 75% in Mexico, and 73% in Canada.

Although China is the global leading market for total ecommerce sales, the United States still surpasses it in the online retail sales sector.

Europe

The countries with the highest ecommerce activity are the United Kingdom (87% of the population buys online), Sweden (84%), and Germany and the Netherlands (83%).
The fewest opportunities are in Romania, where only 27% of the population makes online purchases. Meanwhile, some economic powers such as Italy, which has a modest 48% online buyer rate, do not boast a very large market either.
Spain remains at 63%, although in 2019, it became the European country with the highest growth in ecommerce.

Asia and Oceania

These regions include the highest concentration of the global population and markets with very diverse ecommerce characteristics and demands.
Although the level of ecommerce activity is high and similar in South Korea (88%) and Australia (84%), the needs of a business will vary in order to adapt its sales to each of those countries. The types of products with the highest demand, the most intuitive web design for each population, and shipping conditions are all very different, not to mention adapting content management into Korean is a greater challenge than doing so into English.

Japan is another active ecommerce market with 71% of the country buying online. While China is a large exporter and the biggest ecommerce sales market, its population is less inclined to making international purchases and has an ecommerce shopping rate of 59% (in part because of the government’s online access restrictions).

Latin America

The largest ecommerce markets in Latin America are Argentina, with 78% of the population engaged in online shopping, and Brazil with 50.6%, though the latter country has the highest volume of ecommerce sales.

Africa

The African countries with the highest demand for ecommerce have not yet reached the growth levels of leading economic powers: in Kenya, 65% of the population is active in online shopping, followed by Nigeria and South Africa at 63%.

While these figures may seem unpromising, it is important to remember that Africa is a market with huge inequalities (one that also includes the least developed ecommerce economy in the world: Tanzania). The logistical difficulties of the African market network are not preventing some of its regions from experiencing higher B2C ecommerce growth and stable demand.

Middle East

Like Africa, the Middle East includes a few prominent ecommerce markets as well as regions of very low online penetration.
Among the strongest markets are the United Arab Emirates with 89% of the population engaged in ecommerce activity, Bahrain with 83%, and Qatar with 81%. Meanwhile, in Armenia, only 15% of the population buys online.

It is important to keep in mind that the Middle East is home to a largely young audience, one more accustomed to using online media and not hesitant to buy international products (especially clothing, electronics, and jewelry).

Technologies for an international ecommerce sales strategy

Among the trends and technologies that will transform the world’s ecommerce landscape and facilitate business access to global markets, we can find tools that streamline the management and adaptation of multilingual content to different regions and channels at the same time.

AI: Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence will be a key piece in developing ecommerce businesses in all dimensions, but especially when it comes to facilitating rapid international expansion.

PIM: Product Information Management

A Product Information Management (PIM) solution is a software that facilitates the adoption of omnichannel and international sales strategies more quickly and effectively.
PIM is the most cutting-edge and in-demand technology among today’s manufacturers and sellers, offering a central cloud-based platform with a system for controlling access, edits, and changes. It facilitates management from anywhere in the world and the exporting of product information to any format, channel, or marketplace.

How to adapt your business to sell online internationally

The overall goal and trend in ecommerce is to design a business experience without friction from physical or digital boundaries. This means a personalized shopping experience for each region and consumer, but one that guarantees the same quality of purchase process, product, information, and shipping in any location.

The challenges of adapting a catalog to different countries

Conclusion

International sales are the next natural step after online sales. The facilities provided by ecommerce to deliver more products to more people and regions bring forth new logistical challenges, but the effort is worth it to expand your brand.

Having management technology that centralizes all the work you do to develop an international catalog is a must for companies with a global and omnichannel strategy.

A PIM solution like Sales Layer allows you to gather, adapt, and distribute all your product information to any corner of the world.