Benchmarking Adoption of E-commerce across the G20 Members

Abstract

The COVID-19 situation has accelerated the adoption of e-commerce across the world. While, globally, there has been an increase in the share of e-commerce in total retail sales, there are variations in e-commerce adoption across countries and the difference is obtrusive when one compares developed countries and emerging market economies. This paper undertakes a comparative assessment of e-commerce adoption by the G20 countries and, in doing so, it benchmarks the G20 members across different indicators that determine e-commerce adoption. Based on secondary data, the paper presents some stylized facts, discusses the regulatory scenario with respect to e-commerce in G20 countries and identifies key constraints to e-commerce adoption in the comparatively poor performers.It is found that, overall, most emerging market economies are not very well prepared to support e-commerce adoption. Rather, compared to the developed countries, emerging market economies perform poorly on indicators related to access and use of digital technology, financial inclusion, postal reliability, and electronic security. The paper found that the emerging market economies are severely affected by inadequate infrastructure, digital illiteracy, and low use of digital payments by enterprises.

Buy Now Pay Later—A Fad or a Reality? A Perspective on Electronic Commerce

“…Therefore, by identifying the logistics performance index, ease of doing business, 2IPD, and internet inclusive index as determinant factors, the third objective (O3) was achieved. Thus, the results of the study support Gupta (2022) and Saidu et al (2022), who promoted the ease of doing business as being strongly related to digital business, and Goyal and Morgan (2023), who stated that the reliability of postal development is indispensable for e-commerce. Starting from the first objective (O1), namely describing the core significance of BNPL payment methods scientifically, it was found that the concept is described in the literature by popular factors, such as internet-based financial innovation, depreciation, and decision making.…”

“…Therefore, by identifying the logistics performance index, ease of doing business, 2IPD, and internet inclusive index as determinant factors, the third objective (O3) was achieved. Thus, the results of the study support Gupta (2022) and Saidu et al (2022), who promoted the ease of doing business as being strongly related to digital business, and Goyal and Morgan (2023), who stated that the reliability of postal development is indispensable for e-commerce.…”

“…The postal service "is an indispensable part of electronic commerce" (Goyal and Morgan 2023), and its reliability plays a crucial role in development. It is expected that: After all, internet inclusion plays an important role, representing the criteria for benchmarking adoption of e-commerce (Goyal and Morgan 2023). Reflecting on its connection with the BNPL method, the authors hypothesised: H 5 .…”