The digital commerce market is set to increase from $4.9 trillion in 2015, to just over $8 trillion by 2020, according to Juniper Research's recent report, Digital Commerce: Key Trends, Sectors & Forecasts 2016-2020.
In perspective, the gross domestic product (GDP) of Japan (the world's third-largest economy in terms of nominal GDP) was estimated to be $4.6 trillion in 2014.
The research says the digital commerce market is to see significant growth in transaction values as a result of the contributions from three major commerce segments - digital banking, remote digital goods and remote physical goods.
Lauren Foye, research analyst at Juniper research, says the digital commerce market as a whole is seeing an ever-increasing propensity towards an omni-channel approach. This extends to e-commerce where the mobile and tablet platform is seeing increased use towards the purchasing of physical goods, either for delivery or collection, she adds.
In addition, global online banking users as a proportion of banked individuals are forecast to cross the 50% mark in 2016, notes Foye.
World Wide Worx's Online Retail in South Africa 2016 report shows online retail continues to grow at a high rate in SA, having maintained a growth rate of above 20% since 2000.
In 2015, the rate of growth was 26%, taking online retail to the R7.5 billion mark. While the rate is expected to fall a little in 2016, to 20%, that will still take the total to above R9 billion.
Online retail events such as cyber Monday have been credited with boosting online platform incomes, and 2015 was no exception, with many retailers turning record profits, says Foye.
China's Black Friday event known as 'Singles' Day' reportedly saw e-commerce giant Alibaba sell 91.2 billion yuan ($14.3 billion) in goods, she adds.
Also, digital transaction volumes would be further bolstered with the continued transition to digital formats, and the rise in streamed subscription services, says Juniper research.
In terms of the volume of individual transactions, the use of mobile devices to make monetary transfers, such as international remittances, is expected to have a considerable lead over other market sectors by 2020, says Juniper Research.
According to Criteo, mobile is now the first screen for the majority of consumers, especially as larger smartphone screens make mobile shopping more convenient.
As an increasing share of transactions happens on smartphones, retailers need to prioritise their mobile app strategy and optimise their mobile buying experience, it says.
While on tablets people can use Web sites that aren't mobile-optimised, on smartphones it's crucial to have either a mobile-optimised Web site or app, it adds.
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