The realm of e-commerce grows more and more with every passing year, with investors and entrepreneurs around the world cashing in on an array of products and industries. As the market begins to flood, where does opportunity sit in 2019?
UK-based fintech company Merchant Machine has released a survey which has gone in-depth to seek out the nations and industries where e-commerce has become saturated, and where gaps in the market still exist. Here are top excerpts from the findings:
The Rising E-commerce Nations
Widespread advancements in technology have helped to bring many countries into the online world.
- Indonesia – With an online population of over 100 million people, it’s no surprise to see Indonesia feature on the list. Last year they recorded growth of 78% with travel and clothing as their dominant sectors for spending.
- Mexico – For years Mexico has been seen as a burgeoning powerhouse in the online sphere and with $16.22 billion in e-commerce spending and 59% overall growth, it appears they’re only continuing this remarkable growth.
- Philippines – The 2nd of 3 Southeast Asian countries in the top 10, the Philippines has also seen significant movements in their e-commerce industries. The consumer electronics and clothes retail sectors have been the biggest contributors to their 51% growth.
Notable countries that have found themselves in this year’s top 10 are South America’s Colombia, as well as the UAE, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Israel, India and China.
Internet Investing
As well as being able to determine the sectors that contribute the most to e-commerce economies, we also found the fastest rising industries. From this, we looked at the number of startups and investors on the angel.co database to find the industries worth keeping an eye on.
- Money in Medicine – In our research, the number of investors (13,559) were outranked by the startups that exist in the sector (21,072), illustrating a potential gap in the market for investment.
- Ticket to the Top – For every ‘Event Ticket’ e-commerce startup there are over 32 investors, making it the most in-demand industry in our research, from the view of the backer
- Play the Game – The ‘Video Game’ industry has thrived in recent years, and with over 9 investors for every startup, it ranks as the 2nd highest in terms of demand.
Supply and (Google Search) Demand
- The Rise of Restaurant Delivery – Out of all those we analysed, the restaurant delivery industry has endured the highest increase in Google searches in the last year. With 95% more searches this year, the industry has also enjoyed a revenue increase of 15%.
- Alcohol Anomaly – The Alcohol e-commerce sector has seen a moderate increase in Google searches this year 22% which is outdone by a sizeable spike in revenue (32%).
Source: A Study by Merchant Machine
