The index ranks 152 countries based on their readiness for online purchases, which were valued at $ 4.4 trillion globally in 2018, a seven percent increase over the previous year.
Europe is by far the most e-commerce ready region, according to Unctad rankings, and in 2020 Switzerland was ahead of the Netherlands, considering that in 2019, 97% of its population used the internet.
A statement by Unctad released on Wednesday states that countries score based on access to secure internet servers, reliability of postal services and infrastructure, and take into account a financial institution or mobile money service provider.
The only non-European economies in the top ten are Singapore, which ranks fourth, and Hong Kong, China, in 10th.
Among the developing countries, the top 10 scores came from Asia and are classified as upper or upper middle income economies.
According to Unctad’s observation, the two largest B2C e-commerce markets in the world, China and the United States, are ranked 55th and 12th, respectively.
Although both countries are advancing on many absolute measures, they lag behind in relative comparisons.
“The gap in e-commerce is still huge,” said Shamika Siriman, director of the division of Unctad that produces the annual index.
Siriman added that among the G20 countries, the rate of online shopping ranges from 3 percent in India to 87 percent in the United Kingdom.
In the Unctad Business-to-Consumer E-Commerce Index results, Costa Rica became the country with the best scores in Latin America and the Caribbean, thus replacing Chile.
jcm / crc