Global eCommerce industry ends 2022 looking south, sinks $250bn
By Ben Eguzozie
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Year’s performance worse than earlier forecast
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Revenue down from $3.84 trn to $3.59 trn, first in industry’s history
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US eCommerce was up 5% by $905bn, as 2023 looks up
The revenue profile of the global eCommerce industry, after years of impressive growth, faced headwinds this 2022. With a southward movement, it sank $250 billion, according to data measuring the industry’s performance year-on-year.
The revenue drop, from $3.84 trillion in 2021 to $3.59 trillion this year, is the first in the market’s history, according to Statista Digital Market Outlook.
In the last four years to 2021, global revenues spiked 70 percent, jumping to over $3.84 trillion, according to the Market Outlook. But all that changed in 2022, as the entire market faced global challenges. Industry analysts say the unprecedented revenue drop doubled than expected.
Just like global wages declined to a century low of –0.9 percent in 2022, the first time in all of the 21st century, as captured by International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) 2022-23 Global Wage Report, supply chain issues, inflation, rising digital advertising costs, and changed consumer behaviour have all had their share in the first-ever eCommerce revenue drop.
Initial forecast by Statista Digital Market Outlook had projected $380 billion more revenue in 2022 than a year ago. But as of July (this year), the global eCommerce revenue projection slipped from $4.22 trillion to $3.74 trillion.
The above forecast is indicative that the global eCommerce industry is ending a year with a double than expected $250 billion revenue drop, most of which came from the Chinese market.
Although China generated nearly one-third of total eCommerce revenue in 2022, the world’s largest eCommerce market is ending the year with a massive $212 billion drop in revenue. Other leading eCommerce markets, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Germany, also saw their revenues plunge in the period under review.
However, the US eCommerce market exhibited resilience, being the only one among the world’s top five markets whose eCommerce revenue augmented this year. The US eCommerce industry generated nearly $905 billion in revenue this year, five percent more than in 2021, according to Statista.
Although there is a headwind with global eCommerce at the moment, Statista says it expects positive revenue in the coming year (2023), as growth would get back on track. The data analytics company indicates that in 2023, the entire eCommerce market is estimated to generate $4.48 trillion in revenue, before it would hit the $5 trillion benchmark by 2024.
Among the significant drivers for recovery of the eCommerce industry will be the swelling of its user base. In 2021, there was a massive 50.4 percent penetration rate in the global eCommerce sector, with nearly 3.8 billion people who shopped online. Figures show that online shoppers would grow by 315 million YoY to 4.1 billion in 2022. Also, the market’s penetration rate is set to reach 54.1 percent this year. Meanwhile more than 4.8 billion people are expected to shop online by 2025.