2022 ecommerce trends in Asia

The Asian market has seen some major changes in e-commerce and is becoming increasingly hybrid (in person and online shopping) with 2021. The market is seeing a huge increase in the number of ecommerce websites and customers are also more positive towards online shopping.

Asia’s market is interesting, as it does not only operate using the popular shop systems mentioned in previous articles. Asian countries also have many shop systems that are used in specific countries only. Yet they manage a lot of ecommerce websites in these countries.

This article is part of an ecommerce trends prediction series with the first article being about Europe, the second about North America and the third one about Australia. E-commerce trends prediction for the other main regions of the world will be following suit.

West Asia

Ecommerce retailers in the Middle East and Central Asia have seen a huge increase from 2015 – where ecommerce held only 5,6% of the entire economy to 2021- where the number increased to almost 25%. E-commerce companies have introduced several features that are extremely attractive to consumers:

- multi-category product ranges that are globally available

- access to ratings and reviews

- discounted offers

- fast and affordable delivery to domestic and international markets

- free exchanges and hassle-free returns

- competitive pricing.

Add in 24/7 availability to that list and that explains the increase ecommerce has seen.?

Total number of ecommerce websites: 130487

WooCommerce 39649 (30,38%), Shopify 7119 (5,4557%), OpenCart 12729 (9,755%), Wix Stores 15000 (11,495%), Ecwid 4089 (3,133%), Ideasoft 8,308 (6,3669%) Others 43593 (33,407%)

Countries:

Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Oman, Yemen, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan.

As mentioned previously the ecommerce has taken a huge leap in the last few years and it is predicted for that to continue along those lines. All things considered, the outlook for the e-commerce sector is that it will become the new source of growth in retail, becoming almost a $50 billion market by 2025. Initial indications confirm the shift to online: the bigger players have seen a huge increase in sales and due to the growing demand for products and services, it can be predicted that an increase in the number of ecommerce websites. WooCommerce is predicted to continue being on the lead in terms of the entire region, with Wix Stores following behind.

South Asia

Compared to the West Asian region, the south Asian one is more advanced in terms of ecommerce with more than twice the number of ecommerce websites. The online market plays a significant role in the economy, and it has seen a 22,5% in 2021 and it is projected to continue growing an additional of 14% during the course of this and next year. India on its own is predicted to be the second most growing online market with a projection of 25,5% growth in this year alone. Iran has also seen a good amount of growth since 2020 and is projected to grow by around 20% until 2025.

Total number of ecommerce websites: 315244

WooCommerce 223292 (70,83%), Shopify 39713 (12,597%), Wix Stores 15663 (4,968%), Dokan Marketplace 7586 (2,406%), OpenCart 8877 (2,815%), Magento 3167 (1,005%), Others 16946 (5,3755%)

Countries: Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Iran, Maldives

As the chart shows, WooCommerce fully dominates the south Asian online market and it is projected that it will continue to do so in the near future. As said previously, projections show that the market will continue growing and as a result of that the number of ecommerce websites will also parallelly do so. With an exceptionally large population and a blossoming economy, this region has seen an increase in investments as well as on the e-shops. As the chart shows, WooCommerce fully dominates the south Asian online market, and it is projected that it will continue to do so in the near future. An increase in the number of Shopify, Wix Stores and OpenCart ecommerce stores may happen in the near future with the further internationalization of ecommerce.

Southeast Asia

Among all of the Asian regions this one is the most interesting as it has shown incredible growth in terms of commerce in general, but in ecommerce especially. The Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand are placed high on the list of countries with immense growth in ecommerce for 2022. The Philippines top the list with the growth of 25.9% and Thailand coming out 8th with 18%. That said, it is projected for the growth to not be as high in 2023, as it is predicted it will then continue growing steadily with an average of 14% around the region.?

Total number of ecommerce websites: 188147

WooCommerce 90665 (48,188%), Shopify 16275 (13,775%), OpenCart 11792 (6,266%), Wix Stores 10650 (5,66%), SquareSpace 3572 (1,898%), Ecwid 2344 (1,24%), Others 52849 (28,089%)

Countries: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam

Southeastern Asia will most likely continue growing a lot this year (as mentioned above) and then grow on a steadier level on the coming years. That said, WooCommerce is predicted to continue dominating this region. Shopify, OpenCart and Wix Stores will also continue growing. SquareSpace is predicted to also gain more active users, as similarly to the USA, Canada and Australia, it is advertising increasingly on this region. If the trend is to follow from the mentioned countries, then the numbers will increase a lot.

East Asia

In terms of ecommerce East Asia is one of the most developed regions in the world and is also one of the most innovative ones. With countries like Japan, South Korea and Hong-Kong leading the way, this region has a vast variety of shop system providers that are specific to some countries. East Asia is leading the global e-commerce revolution. Business-to-consumer (B2C) platforms (e-commerce, online travel, advertising technology, transport, e-services and digital media) generated US$3.8 trillion in revenue in 2019, with US$1.8 trillion of it in Asia. E-commerce alone accounted for US$1.9 trillion in revenue globally and US$1.1 trillion regionally. China is at the front, accounting for 45% of e-commerce transactions (Alibaba). With the demand for niche products steadily growing – not only within Asia, but also worldwide – this region is projected to grow even more in the coming years.

Total number of ecommerce websites: 297164

Shopify 33133 (11,14%), WooCommerce 29207 (9,828%), Wix Stores 41662 (14,019%), OpenCart 4625 (1,556%), Ecwid 4012 (1,35%), SquareSpace 3445 (1,15%), Cafe24 42276 (14,227%), ImWeb 21260 (7,154%), Six Shop 10503 (3,534%), ShopLine 7174 (2,414%), Others 99872 (33,608%)

Countries: China, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Hong-Kong, Taiwan

This region is one of the most advanced ones in terms of ecommerce. It has a lot of shop systems that only operate in specific countries. For example Cafe24, ImWeb, Six Shop, ShopLine operate in South Korea and dominate that market. While the numbers in general will continue growing for different providers, it is unlikely that the newer ones will arise to dominate that country. China also uses a system called WeChat. WeChat has 1.24 billion users, almost all based in China. The app’s user growth has slowed in recent years, because almost every smartphone user in the country already has an account. WeChat mini programs generated over $400 billion in annual transactions in 2021, a 70% increase year-on-year. Tencent said foreign businesses which launched mini programs in the past two years have seen annual transactions increase by over 600%. The situation is a bit different in the other countries where the well-known providers like Shopify and WooCommerce are the preferred options with Wix Stores following. These numbers are also predicted to continue increasing, however similarly to South Korea, the bigger players will continue holding the lead.

Conclusion

This Asian continent has some of the most advanced countries in terms of ecommerce, which make their market remarkably interesting to work with.

The number of shoppers has increased and will most likely continue to do so in this year. The trends show that the increased amount of e-shopping has a direct effect in the number of online shops/ ecommerce websites being added to the market. While countries like South Korea and China will continue to base their ecommerce websites on local providers, Shopify, WooCommerce and Wix Stores will continue dominating the other countries.?