On December 3, 2019, According to the “Business-to-Consumer (B2C) E-commerce Index 2019” released by UNCTAD’s (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development), India has moved seven places up and ranked 73rd out of 152 countries index that measures an economy’s preparedness to support online shopping with the Index score of 57.0. For the 2nd consecutive year in a row, the Netherlands leads the Index with the score of 96.4, followed by Switzerland (2nd with 95.5) and Singapore(3rd with 95.1).
Key Points:
i.Least ranked: Burundi (150th ), Chad (151st)and Niger(152nd) are last in the index with the value of 9.0, 8.5, 5.4 respectively.
ii.In 2017, the online shoppers in India as a share of Internet users was 11 % and Internet shoppers as a share of population was 3 %.
iii.European countries secured 8 of the top 10 spots on the index & while non-European nations on the top 10 list includes Singapore (3rd ) and Australia (10th).
iv.The 10 developing countries with the highest scores are all from Asia and classified as high-income / upper middle-income economies, while least developed countries occupy 18 of the 20 bottom positions.
v.The index ranks 152 nations on their readiness for internet shopping, reliability of postal services and infrastructure, portion of their population that uses the internet and has an account with a financial institution or mobile-money-service provider.
vi. The report also notified that in 2017, 1.3 billion people /one quarter of the world’s population aged 15 years and older, shopped online, which is a12 % increase from 2016.
vii.The report stresses to improve the reliability and availability of statistics, especially in developing countries.
About UNCTAD:
Formation– 30 December 1964
Headquarters– Geneva, Switzerland
Secretary-General– Mukhisa Kituyi
