Asia is experiencing a digital revolution fueled by strong
economic growth and increasing consumer buying power.
Despite low Internet penetration rates, 45% of all global
Internet users today are from Asia. E-commerce growth
is being fueled by increasing consumption (driven by
economic growth and urbanization) and fast-growing
Internet and mobile penetration (Figure 18). According
to the Ecommerce Foundation, Asia Pacific is now the
largest and fastest-growing B2C e-commerce region in
the world (valued at US$ 567 billion).46
While Asia offers a lot of opportunities, it is also a
highly diverse and complex region. Emerging economies
are developing faster than the infrastructure that
is required to support that development. The poor
transportation infrastructure is increasing trade costs
and delivery lead times while reducing flexibility. Suboptimal
supply chain infrastructure can directly affect
the consumer. For example, it can take up to six weeks
to send mail from Singapore to Indonesia, despite
the fact that they are neighboring countries.