The market value for e-commerce lighting worldwide is estimated by CSIL at around 9 billion USD (retail prices) and 6 billion USD (manufacturer's prices), with a 10% growth on estimated values for the years 2018 and 2019. As the world B2C e-commerce market is estimated at about 2000 billion USD for the year 2019, e-commerce sales of lighting weight less than 0.5% on the overall aggregate. Due to the overall decline of the lighting market during the year (around -8%), the incidence on the total lighting sales jumps from around 6% to 7% and more.

The main market is still North America (estimated at around 2.6 billion USD) but China is ranking not far (2.5 billion USD according to CSIL estimates). The European market will quickly reach the value of around 7 billion USD (7% on the total lighting market). The United States is by far the main market for online sales regarding all kind of products. E-commerce market is estimated in about 600 billion USD (again, the incidence of lighting should be lower than 0.5%, probably 0.3%-0.4%). It's 16% of the overall retail spending.

2019 growth of e-commerce sales has been impressive for Pinduoduo, Suning (China), Ikea, Amazon (especially in Europe), WayFair, Home Depot, just to mention a few. 2020 growth is relevant in China for Alibaba (but also for Rexel), in Germany for Otto and Home24 (as well as for Shopify), in the United States for WalMart, Home Depot, and Amazon. For specific players, growth has been even in the region of 30% during 2020.

SOME STRUCTURAL FEATURES OF E-COMMERCE LIGHTING

The number of lighting items available in online catalogues can vary a lot but it is frequently in a range between 30 and 50 thousand items. E-tailers manage different delivery policies but all in all it can be said that a free-shipping is usually given for orders of at least 50-150 USD. The line is higher for wholesalers (Villa Lighting) or high-end specialists (DM Lights). The range of options related to the number of lighting suppliers is even wider: frequently 50-100 (at least in the Consumer market) but it is not uncommon to see a trade based on few and strong relationships, as well as 200 and more suppliers. Price range can vary from a couple of dollars (when the trade includes lamps) to over 1000 USD for high-end consumer, professional high quality indoor, connected street lighting. Overall average price is frequently around 75-150 USD. Germany is the most advanced EU market from the logistics point of view (much higher than in Italy or France). The United Kingdom is more advanced from the point of view of internet users. E-commerce sales in Italy have increased by 24% in 2019 (and even +30% for furnishings items). Purchases are made through personal computer (54%), smartphone (41%) or tablet (4%). The internet penetration (90%) and the share of e-shoppers (76%) are higher in France, where the rate of growth is lower (+7.7%).

CONSUMER LUMINAIRES

Consumer luminaires is a slice of the 300 billion USD home market in the United States. This market is expected to growth up to 340 billion USD in 2023. Online sales inside this aggregate are expected to double, passing from 34 to 68 billion USD (from 11% to 20% in percentage). Online sales of lighting products in Asia and Oceania are estimated more than 3.5 billion USD. China (2.5 billion USD) is by far the main market. The percentage of consumers who made at least one purchase online in the last 12 months is almost the same in China (92%) as in the United States (93%). The major 10 Chinese lighting manufacturing players show online sales more than 5% on their overall turnover (160-320 million USD on an aggregate turnover of 3.2 billion USD including lamps and lighting fixtures).