How E-Commerce is going to be vital to your business after the COVID-19 pandemic

The world has already stepped to the digital age. Hence there are opportunities and challenges like never before. Everywhere the attempts to reinvent themselves. But it should be noted that many countries are still not prepared well enough for this change.

One area which is contributing to this change vastly is ecommerce. UNCTAD in its latest estimates gave out that global e- commerce sales stood at $25.6 trillion in 2018. This is an increment of 8% from 2017. Ecommerce involves cross-border sales and that is how it affects the international trade. The share of the 1.45 billion online shoppers throughout the globe increased from 17% in 2016 and from 23% in 2018 which is huge.

These days people have tend more towards ecommerce as they have realized the value of e commerce and contactless transactions like never before because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Hence governments are bend on taking actions.

Africa has taken this seriously and their governments have started to give a priority in adjusting this change. Senegal Ministry of Trade and SMEs has joined hands with the private section and now they are focusing on the process of delivering goods and services via ecommerce. Ministry of ICT in Uganda announced that they have started working on digital solutions to overcome COVID-19 pandemic.

Central Bank of Western Africa welcomed this challenge and they boosted the uptake of government-introduced cashless methods and they decreased the transaction costs from electronic payments

These digital solutions proved to be effective as they reduced face to face interaction between people and prevented the businesses from closing down during the COVID-19 crisis.

Ecommerce solutions have changed the behavior of the markets. They brought change upon productions, developments, selling and even consuming. Hence the sellers should focus on taking their business online as otherwise they would be left behind.

How the digitalization is changing the global market?

ICT goods are extremely important in the process of making economies digitized.2017 ICT goods exported was valued at almost $2 trillion .A point to be noted here is that more than 99% of business came from East Asia and some developed economies

Exports of ICT services, which comprise both telecommunications, information and computer services, have grown faster than services’ trade in general and amounted to $568 billion in 2017.

Digitalization came as a blessing for the sellers who could sell services online through the ICT networks. The value of digitally deliverable services was some $2.9 trillion in 2018 and it is about a half of all services exported in the same year.

Digitalization is all set to affect almost all the major sectors in the market from agriculture to services. In the near future digital processes will capture and control the place. The 2 key things driving the Ecommerce and other aspects of digital economy are digital data and digital platforms.

Digital data have become a new economic resource for creating and capturing value. Control over data is strategically important to be able to transform them into digital intelligence.

In virtually every value chain, the ability to collect, store, analyze and transform data brings added power and competitive advantages. They are core to all fast-emerging digital technologies, such as data analytics, AI, blockchain, IoT, cloud computing and all internet-based services.

Data are also intrinsic to e-commerce. These platforms can use the data they collect from buyers and sellers to offer better services. Unsurprisingly, data-centric business models are being adopted not only by digital platforms, but also, increasingly, by lead companies across various sectors.

The digital data is has become a major economic resource. Be it here or anywhere else ability to collect, store, analyze and transform data takes you a step ahead of your competition. Digital data is the key to data analytics, AI, blockchain, IoT, cloud computing and all internet-based services.

How data is important in Ecommerce? It is so obvious. These platforms will store analyze the data from both buyers and sellers to give them a much better user experience.

Let me come into show how digital platforms conquered the global market.

· Google’s marker for internet searches exceed 90%.

· Facebook controls two third of social media market.

· Facebook is the top social media platform in more than 90% of the countries.

· 40% of world’s online retail activities are done through Amazon.

· There are more than 1 billion WeChat users in China.

· Alibaba leads the Chinese Ecommerce market with more than 60%

These platforms could well provide the opportunity of crossing the borders to domestic small businesses.

Have all the nations welcomed this change?

At a time when most of the developed countries are inclining towards the use of online commerce there are many developing countries which are far behind in this race of using e commerce and its platforms. In sub-Saharan Africa only Kenya, Mauritius, Namibia and South Africa have a share of more than 8% while most of the other economies of the same region are below 5%.

According to the eTrade Readiness Assessments carried out by UNCTAD, there are drawbacks in creating policies in ICT infrastructure, skills and payment methods as well in the 27 countries which are least developed.

One such issue is the security. Trust is extremely important in online commerce hence cyber security should be a concern.

So the weaknesses in their ecosystems and the technical literacy of both the customers and employees are some hindrances for the bloom of online commerce in the developing countries.

What is the problem?

The governments of nations across the world should have to play a pivotal role here. This is extremely challenging as it involves altering the existing laws and regulations and adopting new ones as well.

For most countries, the digital economy remains relatively unchartered territory, and policies and regulations are failing to keep up with the rapid digital transformations taking place.

But at the present, many countries are finding it difficult to adopt to this fast blooming digital world and have taken a back seat.

In Africa, the main issue is affordability and the reliability in connectivity and that is what the respective governments should focus on.

Ensuring affordable and reliable connectivity remains a major challenge in many African economies, especially in rural and remote areas, and requires attention.

The interoperability is required between the e-payment platforms. All cashless solutions should be made easy to use. The payment methods used force the operating costs for platforms and businesses to go down.

One of the five key instruments of the operational phase of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is initializing pan-African payment and settlement system. This is a positive sign for those who dream of a digitalized Africa.

How to overcome?

Now it is clear that the government involvement is extremely pivotal if the gains from this digital transformation should be divided fairly.

The work load for each government will vary here as digitalization affects differently to each country.

To overcome these problems international collaboration is important as well as the full involvement of the existing governments of the developing countries.

Inclusion of ecommerce in AfCFTA will be a huge changing point in the process of how ecommerce systems have worked in the continent so far. Africa could well become a impacting factor in the trade world.