Global Journal of Management and Business Research, B: Economics and Commerce, Volume 21 Issue 5

Table 1: SCO member states’UNCTADB2C e-commerce index MemberState B2Ce-commerceindex 2016* 2017** 2018** 2019*** 2020*** China**** 64 65 63 56 55 India 90 83 80 73 71 Kazakhstan 88 51 53 57 60 Kyrgyzstan 109 117 114 111 97 Pakistan 105 120 117 114 116 Russia 47 43 42 40 41 Tajikistan - - - 129 121 Uzbekistan 108 106 86 93 107 * Ranking among 137 countries ** Ranking among 151 countries *** Ranking among 152 countries **** China Mainland Russia was ranked 41st among 152 countries in the UNCTAD index and it’s the highest index among SCO member states. Although China is leading in terms of e-commerce sales in the world, it was ranked 55th because UNCTAD variables are focused on connection quality and banking services rather than e-commerce sales scale. From 2016 until 2018 Tajikistan B2C e- commerce wasn’t indexed and as of 2020, Tajikistan was ranked 121st, which is the lowest index among SCO member states. Overall the average ranking of SCO member states in theUNCTADB2C e-commerce index was 83rd in 2020. According to the Digital 2021 Global Overview Report, SCO member states have 1.8 billion internet users and only 545 million of them made the online purchase and/or paid bills online. The detailed data is shown below: Table 2: SCO member states internet penetration rate and B2C e-commerce statistics. Member State Total population (million)** Total internet users (million) Internet penetration (%) Users, who make an online purchase and/or pays bills Online (million) Online shoppers’ percentage (%) China* 1402 939.8 65.2% 459 48.8% India 1380 624 45% 26 4.3% Kazakhstan 18.75 15.47 81.9% 3.8 24.3% Kyrgyzstan 6.59 3.32 50.4% 0.16 5% Pakistan 221 61.34 27.5% 5 8% Russia 144.1 124 85% 49 39.6% Tajikistan 9.53 3.36 34.9% 0.43 12.8% Uzbekistan 34.2 18.6 55.2% 1.3 7.1% * China Mainland ** World Bank Chinese and Russian online shoppers lead among total internet users in SCO member states. According to the UNCTAD assessment of COVID-19 impact on online retail 2020 report, the total Chinese e- commerce sales contributed 18 percent to Chinese GDP in 2019 and Chinese B2C e-commerce sales have been ranked first in 2020 9 9 https://unctad.org/news/global-e-commerce-jumps-267-trillion-covid- 19-boosts-online-sales . Russia has the highest internet penetration among member states and its B2C e-commerce sales reached USD31 billion, which is a 1.9 percent contribution to the country’s GDP in 2019. Lately, the JP Morgan E-commerce payment trends report revealed that the Indian e-commerce market has experienced explosive growth and despite only 4.3 percent of online shoppers, e-commerce sales reached US61.1 billion, which accounts for 3 percent of total Indian retail sales in 2019. Pakistan and Kazakhstan’s B2C e-commerce sales also reached one billion USD. According to a Statist a report, the Pakistani B2C e-commerce sales were accounted for USD 2 billion in 2019and USD 4 billion in 2020 10 10 https://www.statista.com/study/85345/ecommerce-in-pakistan/#0 . With almost 82 percent internet penetration and 3.8 million online shoppers Kazakhstan leads the B2C e-commerce among Central Asia and Caucasus countries (ResearchAndMarkets.com, 2019). In 2019 the 2000 local online stores and 13 online platforms were operating in Kazakhstan with USD 980 Demographic and Cultural Factors Influencing the Adoption of B2C E-Commerce in SCO Region © 2021 Global Journals 28 Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXI Issue V Version I Year 2021 ( ) B