TEHRAN – People in Iran spent 1,110 trillion rials (about $26.5 billion) on online shopping during the previous Iranian calendar year 1396 (ended on March 20, 2018), the E-Commerce Development Center of Iran said in a recently published report.

A total of 1,600 billion rials (about $38 billion) in online transactions last year, equaling 11 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), digiato website announced.

The center announced that about 46 percent of e-commerce transactions and 77 percent of e-commerce clients were in the capital city, Tehran.

A total of 1,600 billion rials (about $38 billion) in online transactions last year, equaling 11 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP)The report also indicated that 72 percent of e-commerce businesses are run with less than five persons and only six percent of them are companies with more than 30 staff.

Some 43 percent individuals who are active in the field of e-commerce are 30 to 40 years old and 36 percent of them are 20 to 30 years old. Meanwhile, only nine percent of e-commerce managers are women.

According to the statista.com, for private consumers around the globe the most well-known form of e-commerce falls into the business to consumer (B2C) category, which includes online retail or online shopping.

In 2017, an estimated 1.66 billion people worldwide purchased goods online. During the same year, global e-retail sales amounted to 2.3 trillion dollars and projections show a growth of up to 4.48 trillion dollars by 2021. In Asia Pacific, e-retail sales accounted for 12.1 percent of retail sales in 2016 but only for 1.8 percent of retail sales in the Middle East and Africa.

SB/MG