There are two distinct reasons that are attributable to the rise of E-commerce. The first undeniably is globalization. Competition across borders has now become trade without borders. Trade agreements between countries now become trade between regions. The TPP (Tans Pacific Partnerships) between countries encircling the Pacific or TAP (Trans-Atlantic Partnership) is the forerunner to the existing trade agreements such as NAFTA (North America Free Trade Agreement) and EU (European Union). With Brexit happening there is bound to be an escalation in the use of acronyms signifying independent trade agreements starting with B or BR.

The second most and equally important reason attributed to E-commerce growth is the result of smartphone technology. Billions of people in the world are talking more and socially connected like never before. Mobile Internet technology is the major enabler and with communication technologies embracing 5G spectrum (most countries are already wired for 3G and 4G networks) the future for E-commerce growth is unimaginable. Consider the following metric; in 2015 APAC region (Asia Pacific) accounted for almost a trillion dollars; by 2018 this is rising up to 2.5 trillion and by 2030 the figure of 50 trillion is possible.

The APAC region has several players facilitating this trade such as Alipay, Union Pay, Payment Asia, NTT among others. There is one caveat for growth; the consumer is becoming smarter with the ability to single-handedly influence growth. Payment Asia review analysis has shown that a positive review can spread exponentially and the converse is true that a negative review can spread like wildfire and before you know it the damage is done. Termed disruptive sphere social media is a tool such as payments reviews is dissected, sliced and data gleaned to offer the service as decided by the needs of the customer.

Alibaba the e-commerce giant from China led by the charismatic Jack Ma is confident that engaging customers proactively 100% of the time is the only way forward. Other players such as paymentasia, unionpay, reddot among others, embrace this message as a mantra.