China and Asia, the new stars in international e-commerce

There has been a lot of discussion about the untapped potential of China as a retail environment. Just last month, China overtook the United States as the world’s largest economy and has a population that’s four times bigger. Whilst the country’s love affair with big luxury goods – thanks to the rising number of high net worth individuals – is well documented, the growing middle-classes also have strong spending power.

With retailers around the globe concentrating their attention on Asia as the next frontier, many make the mistake of focusing too heavily on China. Whilst China is undoubtedly Asia’s golden child, Asia comprises the largest and most populous continent with a combined population of approximately 4.4 billion, as such it presents a huge opportunity for the e-commerce industry. In fact, Asia contributed a whopping 35 per cent of the world’s e-commerce turnover in 2014 and is continuing to grow.

Whilst recent attention in the payments industry has been on China as the next e-commerce frontier – with Alibaba’s Jack Ma recently courting US businesses to cross the border – we are starting to witness the rise of Chinese companies breaking into European markets.

Read our three-part series on: 1) Exploring the untapped potential of China, 2) The Not So Far East: Asia, the Next E-commerce Frontier and 3) Is the tide turning for Chinese brands overseas?