E-commerce in Central Asia: Prospects for Development
At the MoneyDay conference held on April 11 in Almaty, the three Central Asian countries - Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan - were named the most attractive countries for international representatives of e-commerce via Internet.
Interest in Central Asia – this is about 70 million people – as a promising market for Internet services was outlined in 2017. Tashkent, Astana, Bishkek, Ashgabat and Dushanbe (Tajikistan) are the primary ones, as e-commerce is growing mainly in large cities with a population of more than 500 thousand people. There is a developed infrastructure, access to the Internet (covering in the region – 90 percent) and interest in Internet services there.
The presence of Internet banking also plays a big role. Now, business scheme in many countries looks as follows: Internet order – delivery “hand-to-hand” – payment in cash. Delivery is carried out by taxi services or by “passing by” type and is limited by the size of the goods carried, the costs of transportation and the delivery time. Therefore, delivery outside large cities excluded almost. Unfortunately, it is not e-commerce at all.
Meanwhile, the market has a large growth potential. It can be seen in the examples of online ticket services. Users already appreciate their convenience, speed and minimal costs.
Now in Turkmenistan, it is difficult to find an entrepreneur who does not attract the Internet sources to the promotion of his goods and services. However, often advertising is not yet associated with service activities, as well as offline services – with online ones. Moreover, there are still many unused opportunities of the new market, the advantages of which should be assessed by both entrepreneurs and customers.
