The global ecommerce landscape

Lesson 02 · 50 min · 1 / 20

The global ecommerce landscape

Huge and small at the same time - because the measures differ

Open with the two headlines. Do not resolve the contradiction yet; tell students the lesson gives them a routine for deciding when numbers may be compared.

Opening question · 2 / 20

Can both headlines be true?

• Headline A: global ecommerce sales passed US$5 trillion.
• Headline B: online retail is only 18% of global retail.
• A student concludes: ecommerce is huge and small.
• Is one headline wrong, or are they measuring different things?

Let the class vote. Record the vote count; revisit it after the data slide. The shift in the vote is the learning evidence.

Learning objectives · 3 / 20

By the end, you can...

• Name the three stages and one feature of each.
• Compare size and penetration for three economies and explain why rankings differ.
• Explain why domestic online retail is not cross-border ecommerce.
• State what a connectivity indicator can and cannot support.

Point out that O2 and O3 are the ones students most often get wrong in exams. They will be checked directly in Q2, Q3 and Q5.

Concept 1 · Three stages · 4 / 20

Three stages, three different bottlenecks

Ask what the bottleneck was in each stage. The answer moves from access, to business model, to distribution. Warn that not every country climbs the ladder in order.

Concept 1 · Why it matters · 5 / 20

Today's tools come from different stages

This slide answers the common question "why do we study history?". Keep it short; the data slides matter more for the exam.

Concept 2 · Two measures · 6 / 20

Size and penetration answer different questions

Do not show the table yet. Ask students to predict: which country is largest by size, and which by penetration. Their surprise is the point.

Data · 2020 · 7 / 20

China leads on size; Korea leads on penetration

Reveal bars one at a time. Ask students to read two numbers for each country: money and bracket. Then ask which country is "most advanced" - there is no single answer.

Global check · 8 / 20

Most retail still happens offline

• The visible platform economy is not the whole retail market.
• Ask which categories and which customers actually moved online.
• Do not treat ecommerce growth as automatic retail takeover.

This is the counterweight to the previous slide. Without it, students overgeneralise from platform visibility.

Concept 3 · Scope trap · 9 / 20

Three numbers that look comparable but are not

Ask whether B may be divided by A. The answer is no: different years, and A includes B2B. This is exactly the case in the handout.

Concept 3 · China's position · 10 / 20

Three layers, three sources

The error to prevent: using layer 1 as a proxy for layer 3. Ask which source would answer a question about exports.

Concept 3 · Two scopes · 11 / 20

Domestic online retail is not cross-border trade

Tie back to Lesson 1's three conditions. The comparison is not about size but about boundary.

Data · Home countries · 12 / 20

Connectivity is a precondition, not a market size

Ask what else is needed before these percentages become online purchases: payment, delivery, trust, platform supply. The indicator measures access only.

Concept 4 · Limits · 13 / 20

What connectivity cannot tell you

If a student says "Kenya's ecommerce is 35%", correct it immediately: that is internet use, not ecommerce. Data gaps should be stated, not filled.

Case · Teaching case · 14 / 20

Three headlines, one bad division

• A: 2022 global ecommerce > US$5tn, including B2B.
• B: 2020 China B2C online retail US$1.4143tn, 24.9% of retail.
• C: 2024 Kenya internet use 35.0%.
• A student divides B by A and calls it "China's share of global ecommerce".

Ask why the division fails. Do not hunt for a correct percentage; the correct answer is that these inputs cannot answer the question.

Case analysis · 15 / 20

Label before you compare

Make students say the four labels aloud for each headline. This routine is the transferable skill of the lesson.

Common misconceptions · 16 / 20

Five claims to retire

• Bigger market means more digitalised.
• Global ecommerce is mostly B2C.
• China's domestic retail equals its cross-border trade.
• Internet use is the online shopping rate.
• No data means a market is zero.

Ask for a counter-example for each. The Korea/China comparison covers the first; the 18% figure covers the second.

Classroom activity · 17 / 20

Defend or withdraw a headline

"Unanswerable" is a valid and often correct answer. Praise it when the labelling supports it.

Self-check · 18 / 20

Five questions, one per objective

• Q1 GMV · Q2 China's share of retail
• Q3 domestic vs cross-border · Q4 the reinvention stage
• Q5 which comparison is valid without adjustment

Q5 is the transfer question. If students miss it, revisit the four labels rather than the data.

Summary · 19 / 20

What you can now do

• Place a business model in one of the three stages.
• Read size and penetration as different measures.
• Keep domestic retail, platform GMV and cross-border trade apart.
• Label any figure before comparing it.

Re-run the opening vote. Ask what changed in their reasoning, not just in the vote count.

Sources & next · 20 / 20

Sources and preparation

• Textbook §1.4–1.5, §2.2.2–2.2.3, §2.3.2, §2.8; Table 2-1 (SRC-001/002).
• UNCTAD via the textbook (SRC-006); World Bank WDI (SRC-037).
• Next: Lesson 3 - where China's supply comes from.

Remind students to keep the four labels in their notes; they will be used again in Lessons 5, 8 and 16.