The worldwide pandemic and consumer behavior shift to online shopping propelled the 2020 global e-commerce growth rate to 29%. With the COVID-19 Delta variant, among other variants emerging mid-year 2021, having a successful e-commerce strategy has never been more critical to retailers in developing markets. E-Commerce retailers, particularly in emerging markets, must be nimble and ready to quickly adapt to the supply chain issues currently forecast for the rest of Q3 and throughout Q4 2021. There’s never been a more acute and necessary time to dig in to understand your e-commerce supply chain better.

A Look at Mexico and India: Two Promising Regions for E-Commerce Growth

E-Commerce expansion continues to widen for emerging retail markets including, Mexico and India. These two regions show immense promise in e-commerce growth by 2024. In 2020, Mexican e-commerce saw a significant rise of 37%, while India witnessed a more measured 7-8% growth rate. However, due to a considerable uptick in the use of mobile, India’s e-commerce growth rate is expected to rise to an impressive $70 billion by 2030. We anticipate that both emerging markets will continue to quickly adapt to mobile adoption for e-commerce as accessibility continues and will generate excess revenue for retailers.

Larger retailers serving Mexico, like Wal-Mart, Amazon, and Liverpool, are responsible for 15% of Mexico’s online revenue today. Mexico has an 8% CAGR e-commerce forecast for 2020-2024, according to Statista. The primary shipping service providers for the last mile in Mexico are FedEx (27%), DHL (23%), and Redpack (12%).

India’s top three e-commerce retailers are Amazon, Flipcart.com, and Alibaba. India, likewise, is expected to have exponential growth in e-commerce by 2024, reaching a massive 27% CAGR between 2019 and 2024. In Q4 2020 alone, India saw a 36% increase in e-commerce order volume. India’s top three shipping service providers are Blue Dart, Delhivery, and FedEx, with the top three alone servicing almost 20,000 pincodes each. Due to the size and scale of India’s geography, the top ten (including DHL) allow for many options for e-commerce providers of all sizes.

The deduction from these vital statistics is that the giant e-commerce providers will likely rule the upcoming holiday seasons in late Q3 and all Q4—if only due to their ability to scale and volume. However, smaller e-commerce companies can still grow significant market share in the coming months and years by leaning on partners who can assist with technology and enhance customer experience through improved logistics. Being nimble and adaptable is a notable advantage for smaller retailers, particularly in emerging markets.

Four critical areas of the supply chain we believe are most important:

1) Invest or partner in technology to get your product from your e-commerce store to the doorstep of your customer in the most effective method possible,

2) Be innovative: try same day (Hyperlocal) and weekend deliveries

3) Decrease your shipping times by improving the last mile experience, and finally,

4) Be competitive with the costs of shipping

One Final Piece of Advice

We leave the last bit of advice for our emerging market e-commerce companies as they head into a busy Q4: don’t forget to personalize your offers using innovative technology and provide content driven off the end consumer like personalized 24/7 chatbots and customer support to give unparalleled customer service. In the end, while you may not be able to beat the Amazons and Alibabas of the world in terms of size and price, you can outperform them in outstanding customer service.