Switzerland first on ecommerce index

Switzerland is the new number one on the B2C E-commerce Index of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. It surpasses the Netherlands, which ended first in the previous two editions.

For a few years now, UNCTAD ranks 152 countries on their readiness to engage in ecommerce. As usual, Europe is by far the most prepared region for online retail, the latest index shows. Aside from Singapore (4^th place) and Hong Kong (10^th), all countries in the top 10 are from Europe.

And for the first time, it’s Switzerland that leads the ecommerce index, just ahead of the Netherlands, which ranked first in 2018 and in 2019.

Top 10 economies in the UNCTAD B2C E-commerce Index 2020

These countries are ranked based on different factors, such as the access to secure internet servers, reliability of postal services and infrastructure, and the portion of the population that uses the internet and has an account with a financial institution or a provider of mobile money services.

‘Ecommerce divide remains huge’

“The ecommerce divide remains huge”, says Shamika N. Sirimanne, director of UNCTAD’s division that prepares the annual index. “Even among G20 countries, the extent to which people shop online ranges from 3 percent in India to 87 percent in the United Kingdom.”

In the UK, 87% of people shop online.

What’s even more interesting is that the two largest ecommerce markets in the world, China and the United States, are nowhere to be found in the top 10. China ranks 55^th this year, while the US ends in 12^th place. “Although both countries lead in several absolute measures, they lag in relative comparisons”, UNCTAD explains.

“For instance, internet penetration in the United States is lower than in any of the economies in the top 10, while China ranks 87^th in the world on this indicator. As for online shopping penetration, the United States ranks 12^th while China takes the 33^rd slot.”