JOHANNESBURG - Courier services company DHL Express forecasts the global market for e-commerce between companies will grow by more than 70 percent to $20.9 trillion (R312.02 trillion) by 2027, it said in a study released on Tuesday.
The company, a subsidiary of Deutsche Post, saw its own revenue jump by almost 12 percent last year to 19.1 billion euros ($22.41 billion) as more companies and consumers switched to e-commerce because of the pandemic.
The trend is now firmly established and will outlive the pandemic, it said.
One factor driving the growth in business-to business (B2B)transactions is the millennial generation, which was already accustomed to using digital platforms for business-to-customer (B2C) transactions.
The millennial generation has grown to account for 73 percent of all business-to-business (B2B) purchasing decisions, DHL said in the study.
It expects 80 percent of all transactions between suppliers and business customers to take place on purchasing platforms and other digital channels by 2025, it said but gave no comparative figures for current usage.
REUTERS