Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the Philippines, India, Malaysia and Vietnam were among the most optimistic about their future e-commerce growth in the next three years, a sentiment shared by consumers in these same markets.

This was according to the latest e-commerce trends in 11 markets in the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa region (AMEA) from research commissioned by FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp., and one of the world's largest express transportation companies.

At present, e-commerce represents less than 6 percent of total retail sales in each of these markets.

SMEs and consumers in Japan and South Korea see the least potential for significant future growth.

Asia Pacific, which includes the world’s biggest e-commerce markets like India, Mainland China, Japan and Korea , will see revenue from e-commerce sales reach US$2.09 trillion this year as 57 percent of the region’s population shops online.

Overall, the survey revealed that consumers look for innovations in personalization, “shoppertainment” and payment options that enhance their experience and at the same time, make it easier to discover new brands and make purchasing convenient.

“COVID has accelerated our lifestyles to a pivot point where shopping online has been normalized across all demographics, and there’s no going back," according to Kawal Preet, president of FedEx Expres, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa (AMEA).

"E-commerce is set to take a growing proportion of total consumer spend,” he explained. “With more people shopping online, consumer preferences are becoming increasingly sophisticated."

However, the study also showed an expectation mismatch on service experience touchpoints.

As more consumers participate in the on-demand economy and increasing shipment volumes put pressure on e-tailers, maintaining customer service quality is critical.

The survey data reveals a significant 10 percent gap between how SMEs rate their own e-commerce customer experience and how consumers view it.

The biggest gaps appeared in having an efficient returns service (13 percent) and access to customer support (11 percent).

Deliveries taking too long is the number one pain consumer point (53 percent) followed by handling returns (42 percent).

Consumers typically expect delivery within three days to one week, but clearly there is a desire for delivery to be at least more reliable, if not faster.

This trend is most pronounced in the Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore signifying that SMEs in these three markets need to up their game considerably to begin to live up to consumer expectations.

Furthermore, the study noted that there are too few experienced people for too many jobs.

While the future looks bright, 65 percent of e-tailers reported they were struggling to handle the growing number of orders they were receiving.

Amid surging demand talent and recruitment has proven challenging for SMEs.

The bulk, 73 percent of SMEs surveyed, experienced extremely high levels of resignations over the past 12 months as the global Great Resignation phenomenon has impacted the region.

Some 62 percent believed there were too few people for too many jobs with e-commerce marketing and sales experience being most in demand.

SMEs are adopting a dual approach in response, recruiting talent from outside their business and upskilling current staff through training to meet demand in a tight employment market.

Both SMEs and consumers are maturing in their use of e-commerce and both groups agree that the pandemic-driven utilization of e-commerce is here to stay.

Eight in ten SMEs believe e-commerce will become more important in their business in the next three years and nine in ten believe they are well prepared for the challenge.

Most, 80 percent of consumers reported that e-commerce had taken a greater share of their total purchases over the past three years while 71 percent see further increases ahead.

The online survey was conducted by Harris Interactive across 11 markets including Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

A total of 300 small and medium businesses with less than 250 employees engaged in e-commerce were polled in each market alongside 500 consumers over the age of 18.