BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 26
Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
The value of m-commerce in Georgia amounted to 28.7 million lari ($8.6 million) in 2020, excluding VAT, Trend reports via Georgian media.
The statistics include online retailing mobile e-commerce sales.
In 2019 m-commerce current value in Georgia amounted to 20.4 million lari ($6.1 million), excluding VAT.
As for 2021, retail value of mobile e-commerce in Georgia is forecast to grow by almost 25 percent, reaching 35.7 million lari ($10.7 million).
“M-commerce value is low in Georgia as a penetration of total e-commerce and at the same time it is low in actual terms when comparing to other countries,” Lilija Vladykina, Senior Analyst -Services & Payments at Euromonitor International said.
According to her, despite smartphone ownership is rather high in Georgia, consumers prefer more offline shopping to online, due to lack of trust in online payments. On the other hand, a lack of mobile applications and mobile-adopted webpages remain a significant barrier. This is especially common for domestic brands, their applications are simple with limited number of functions.
According to Vladykina mobile e-commerce received an unexpected boost in 2020 and it is expected that a growing number of e-commerce players will launch mobile-friendly interfaces on their websites over the forecast period.
As she noted, further growth will be encouraged by global brands like Aliexpress, Amazon, eBay marketplaces, which have significant dominance in e-commerce and encourage users to switch to mobile internet retailing.
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