India ranks 73rd in United Nations e-com index

United Nations: India has ranked 73rd out of 152 countries in a business-to-consumer E-commerce index that measures an economy's preparedness to support online shopping, moving seven places up in the list.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development's Business-to-Consumer (B2C) E-commerce Index 2019 has been topped by the Netherlands for the second consecutive year. European nations hold eight of the top 10 spots on the index, which ranks 152 countries on their readiness to engage in online commerce. The only non-European countries on the top 10 list are Singapore (3) and Australia (10).

The index scores 152 nations on their readiness for online shopping, worth an estimated $3.9 trillion globally in 2017, up 22 per cent from the previous year. India is ranked 73rd in the 2019 index, slightly improving its position from 80 in 2018 and 83 in 2017. According to the report, in India Internet shoppers as a share of Internet users was 11 per cent and Internet shoppers as a share of population 3 per cent in 2017.

Faring better than India are countries such as Iran, ranked 42nd, Kazakhstan (57), Azerbaijan (62), Vietnam (64) and Tunisia (70). Switzerland is ranked second on the list, followed by Singapore, Finland, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway, Ireland, Germany and Australia.

Countries are scored on the access to secure internet servers, the reliability of postal services and infrastructure, and the portion of their population that uses the internet and has an account with a financial institution or mobile-money-service provider.

The 10 developing countries with the highest scores are all from Asia and classified as high-income or upper middle-income economies. At the other end of the spectrum, least developed countries occupy 18 of the 20 bottom positions.

Out of the 20 economies with the lowest value in the 2019 index, 18 are Least Developed Countries, with Congo and Syria being the only non-LDCs in this group. Comoros, Burundi, Chad and Niger are last in the index.

"Our B2C index shows how real and worrying the digital gap is between developed and developing countries," Director of UNCTAD's unit that prepares the annual index, Shamika Sirimanne said.