Ecommerce: An Overview

Global B2C eCommerce sales of products and services are forecasted to reach $3.6 trillion in 2019 ($2.3 trillion in 2017), representing 13% of the share of total retail sales. In the U.S. alone, the eCommerce boom has flattened the profitability of traditional 'bricks-and-mortar' retailers, and particularly shopping malls, with eCommerce penetration there representing around 10.5% of retail sales. Comparatively, the percentage of online sales to total retail in the UAE is around 2.9%, which is where the U.S. was in 2005. There is likely to be a more material 'up-tick' in the adoption of technology and eCommerce in the UAE and wider region.

In the early 1990's, retailers had local reach, were store-based, there was limited availability to real-time price comparison, cash-and-carry was the only sales option and retailers had limited scalable business models.