Can e-commerce grow retail sales beyond inbound travelers?

Hong Kong retail is overdependent on mainland visitors. Hainan will become a free port in 2025 and thus a competing shopping destination. Can HK leverage the Greater Bay Area of 72 million people and a US$1.68 trillion GDP? Luo Weiteng reports from Hong Kong.

The upside for Hong Kong's e-commerce potential is high — a large portion of the population has yet to make an online purchase. Four in 10 of the 7.5 million residents do not use e-commerce, according to the JP Morgan 2020 E-commerce Payments Trends Report. Data from market researcher Euromonitor International indicates that COVID-19 speeded up digital transactions. Annual e-commerce sales in Hong Kong grew by 27 percent in 2020. About 13 percent of all retail transactions are online. The Hong Kong e-commerce market size was HK$49 billion (US$6.31 billion) in 2020, of which about 75 percent was purchased on local retail sites, while 25 percent went to cross-border e-commerce sites.