With the rapid consumer sentiment shift toward online shopping, China has become the largest e-commerce market in the world, amounting to $1.543 trillion of total revenues in 2021. Notably, the Chinese e-commerce market contributed to the worldwide growth rate of 29%. In addition, the global e-commerce industry should continue to expand quickly, reaching $5.726 trillion by 2025 due to further e-commerce expansion in East and Southeast Asia.
Since the start of 2022, the e-commerce industry has entered bear market territory, as is evidenced by the ProShares Online Retail ETF (ONLN) 38.7% loss year-to-date versus the SPDR S&P 500 ETF’s (SPY) 14.32% decrease. However, the current online retail sell-off creates solid entry opportunities for contrarian investors, who are willing to add quality e-commerce stocks to their portfolios.
