In the context of slowing economic activity, COVID-19 has caused a surge in e-commerce and accelerated digital transformation.
As the blockade becomes the new normal, businesses and consumers are becoming more and more “digital”, offering and purchasing more goods and services online, and e-commerce’s share of global retail trade has increased. This has increased from 14% in 2019 to about 17% in 2020.

These and other findings are shown in a new report “COVID-19 and e-commerce: a global review”, which comes from UNCTAD and eTrade, applies to all partners, and reflects the global and regional industry’s records recorded throughout 2020. Powerful transformation.

At the event that released the report, Volkan Bozkir, President of the United Nations General Assembly, stated that the e-commerce trend may continue during the COVID-19 recovery.
“We need to recognize the challenges and take steps to support the government and citizens in continuing to adopt new ways of working,” he said.
UNCTAD Acting Secretary General Isabel Durant said: “Businesses and consumers who can ‘go digital’ have helped alleviate the economic recession caused by the pandemic.”
“But they have also accelerated the digital transformation, which will have a lasting impact the impact on our society and daily life, not everyone is ready for it,” he said, adding: “Developing countries should not only be consumers, but also active participants. It is a producer of the digital economy.”
has benefited some The results of the survey show that e-commerce has a high penetration rate in several regions, and consumers in emerging economies have made the biggest shift towards online shopping For example, Mercado Libre, an online marketplace in Latin America, has doubled its sales, compared to the same period last year, there are many products every day in the second quarter of 2020. The African e-commerce platform Jumia reports that the volume of transactions in the first six months of 2020 has increased by 50%.
From August 2019 to August 2020, China’s share of online retail sales increased from 19.4% to 24.6. In Kazakhstan, the online share of online retail sales increased from 5% in 2019 to 9, and 4% in 2020.
App shopping downloads in Thailand increased by 60% in just one week in March 2020. The report stated that the trend of e-commerce adoption in 2020 is likely to continue during the recovery.
But in many of the world’s least developed countries, consumers and businesses have not yet taken advantage of the e-commerce opportunities caused by the pandemic due to persistent obstacles. These include expensive broadband services, excessive reliance on cash, insufficient consumer confidence, poor population digital skills, and limited government attention to e-commerce.

“In this digital economy, countries that take advantage of the potential of e-commerce will be able to better benefit from the global market for their goods and services, and those will not risk falling behind further,” said Shamika N. Sirimanne. Director, Technology and Logistics Division, UNCTAD. The report stated that one of the challenges is that the pandemic mainly benefits the world’s major digital platforms.Many solutions for e-commerce, remote office and cloud computing are provided by a relatively small number of large companies, mainly in China and the United States.

Smaller players may have gained a deeper foothold, but their market share is still being obscured by digital giants, which may consolidate their dominance during the pandemic.
“The risk is that the huge digital divide that already exists between and within countries will only be exacerbated by the pandemic,” said Torbjörn Fredriksson, UNCTAD’s director of digital economy.”The result will be more severe inequality, which may undermine the progress of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals,” he added.
Government response measures Most governments prioritize short-term responses to the pandemic, but some governments have also begun to address long-term strategic requirements for recovery. Some governments in developing countries have intervened to protect corporate and personal income.

For example, in Latin America and the Caribbean, the government of Costa Rica has launched a platform for companies that do not have an online business, and has launched applications for smartphones and SMS services to promote trade between producers of agricultural products. , meat and fish products. .

In Africa, Senegal has carried out information, education and promotion activities on the benefits of electronic commerce for all people. In Asia, Indonesia has launched a capacity building program to accelerate digitization and digitization of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

Action Points for Inclusive E-commerce Report describes actions that three stakeholder groups must take to ensure more inclusive benefits of e-commerce.
He said that the government should prioritize the digital readiness of the country so that more local businesses can become producers of the digital economy, not just consumers.
According to the report, building a conducive e-commerce ecosystem requires changes in public policies and business practices to improve digital and business infrastructure, promote digital payments, and establish appropriate legal and regulatory frameworks for transactions and security. “The approach must be holistic. Policies should not be formulated in isolation,” Ms Sirimanne said. Next, to obtain value from digital commerce, digital entrepreneurship must become a central focus.

This requires small companies to accelerate the digitalization process and pay more attention to digital entrepreneurship, including retraining, especially for women.
countries also need better capabilities to acquire and use data, as well as a stronger regulatory framework to create and capture value in the digital economy, the report said.
Finally, the international community needs to find new, bold and smart ways to cooperate with the government and the private sector to take advantage of these opportunities.
“The digital divide that existed long before COVID-19 is a challenge that can be bridged through our collective efforts and international support,” Mr. Bozkiel added. “E-commerce offers great potential for all the Sustainable Development Goals. Therefore, efforts should be made to use this rapidly emerging tool.”

To support the work of the United Nations system on this issue, Mr. Bozkir announced on April 4, 2021. A one-day high-level thematic debate on digital cooperation and connectivity was announced on the 27th April 2021.

This will provide a platform for high-level political statements of intentions and support between UN entities, technical leaders, tripartite members, and stakeholders, as well as frank exchanges to build momentum and mobilize the international community to strengthen multi-stakeholder initiatives and partners relationship. And support the establishment of more partnerships to accelerate implementation. depicts the future of e-commerce requires better dialogue and collaboration to determine a new path to the digital economy.

The universal e-commerce initiative led by UNCTAD, currently funded by the Netherlands, Germany and Estonia, is a platform for this.For the past four years, the initiative has served as a global help desk for developing countries to close the knowledge gap in e-commerce information and resources and promote partnerships among its partners.

Since the outbreak of the epidemic, more than 30 eTrades from all partners have worked together to raise awareness of the opportunities and risks of e-commerce during the crisis.
They also identified ways for companies in developing countries and LDCs to overcome challenges. The COVID-19 repository launched in Fall 2020 and the new COVID-19 report and e-commerce are the initiative’s latest collective efforts to build a sustainable digital future.