E-Commerce: Power for the Next Generation Date:   Monday , July 01, 2013 FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX) provides transportation, e-Commerce, and business services globally. Headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, the company has a current market cap of $30.33 billion. The largest driving force in the global economy is now e-Commerce. By changing how we buy, and from whom, the marketplace connects consumers in the most populous countries of China and India to an entrepreneur with an idea, a product, and a laptop. E-Commerce is getting faster and smarter, but a truly borderless global economy relies on both the Internet and a worldwide delivery network, like FedEx. Celebrating the company’s 40th Anniversary in April, it’s interesting to reflect on the world in 1973 – before personal computers, digital cameras, or mobile communication – and realize that all industrial revolutions involve innovation. That innovation over the past four decades is perhaps best illustrated by China, whose growth in e-Commerce specifically has been nothing short of meteoric. The United States definitely took the lead in the e-Commerce game in the mid-1990s with the advent of shopping sites such as Amazon and eBay. Yet China is now the second-largest e-Commerce market in the world, with online sales of $194 billion in 2012—and it is soon to be the first with expected sales to reach $420 billion by 2015. The figures are indeed stunning: By 2020 Chinese e-tailing is projected to match the size of today’s U.S., U.K., Japan, German, and French markets combined, reaching up to $650 billion in sales, according to the McKinsey Global Institute. That is backed up by the 193 million Chinese consumers who shop online, more than any other country in the world. This spending potential is particularly evident among certain demographics. For example, in recent years, single men and women in China have celebrated an annual “Singles Day,” during which singles are encouraged to buy gifts for one another. This past November, Alibaba reported it sold more than $3 billion in goods and services on that day, a staggering amount for a 24-hour time period. In India, the e-Commerce industry has tremendous potential to provide impetus to the growth of the express cargo industry. According to a report by the Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) the e-Commerce market in India was estimated at Rs.46,520 crore (approx $10Billion) for 2011. Within that number, the e-tail market itself was estimated as Rs.2700 crore ($616 Million) for the year 2011 and is now growing at the rate of 30 percent year-on-year. For consumers in India, online purchases, excluding travel services, are evolving with the surge of e-Commerce websites in the country today. A recent report says urban Indian consumers are now confident enough to make online purchases of up to Rs.25,000 – quite a jump from the Rs.2,000-5,000 range in the recent past and represents significant opportunity in India for global online shopping. Yet there are transportation challenges when it comes to e-commerce and SMEs, one of the biggest being the confusing and complex array of documents and paperwork required by hundreds of countries. Despite the rapid growth of the industry, customer understanding of the processes involved in global e-Commerce transactions is still limited in India, resulting in operational challenges from a logistics perspective. E-Commerce in India is still in its nascent stage. With the number of entrants in this field increasing day-by-day and the growth rate reaching its hilt, there is a possibility that in the coming years, customary retailers will switch to online business. According to the latest research by Forrester, a leading global research and advisory firm, the e-Commerce market in India is set to grow the fastest within the Asia-Pacific Region at a CAGR of over 57 percent during 2012-16. While on our first day of business in the U.S., FedEx delivered 186 packages and today the average daily volume is more than 9 million shipments worldwide, including India. Just as access to the global marketplace continues to evolve, so do we. It’s how FedEx plans to be successful for another 40 years and beyond.