Since the creation of Apple’s iPhone in 2007, which made it easier to access the internet from a mobile device, e-commerce started to become more relevant and more and more companies were orienting their business towards digital commerce.
Amazon is one of the world’s leading eCommerce companies, founded by Jeff Bezos, started as an online bookstore in 1997 and today is one of the most powerful online retailers in the world. Its revenues in 2019 reached 316 billion euros due to revenues from advertising, Prime subscriptions, online sales, etc.
In Asia the most important eCommerce is Alibaba, created in 2000 by Jack Ma, his company started with a budget of 50,000 dollars and a staff of just 50 people and today some 50,000 people work for Alibaba and had revenues of 67 billion euros last year.
Other global e-commerce giants such as Ebay, Zalando or Alibaba’s Chinese rivals such as Jd.com, which are expanding considerably, should not go unmentioned.
In Spain, e-commerce is a very important sector with 75% of shops having an online platform, the most prominent being El Corte Inglés, but not far behind is Pc Componentes, which started out as an online shop selling computer products and now has a physical shop in Alhama de Murcia.
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The impact of the coronavirus on eCommerce
Covid-19 has impacted eCommerce dramatically, after the quarantine imposed to try to stop the coronavirus, many people turned to online commerce, even people who had never shopped online before. According to the Digital 2’2′ special report, 47% of the world’s internet consumers spent more time shopping online during quarantine.
In Spain 15% and in China 67% of users. Why is that? Simply put, this was the best channel for obtaining the products needed during confinement, as it kept the social distance. In Spain, the months after the crisis had an irregular development, according to the report published by the National Market and Competition Commission on the development of e-commerce, this quarter has offered better results than the previous one, with a year-on-year growth of 2.5%. These data make it clear that there is a slow recovery of the economy after the first months of the pandemic.