GENEVA, Dec.10 (Xinhua) -- The Netherlands tops the Business-to-Consumer (B2C) E-commerce Index 2018 as the most prepared country in the world for online commerce, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) announced Monday.
The new index shows that eight of the top 10 countries for online shopping are in Europe, with their index values extraordinarily close and just four points between the first and the tenth in the ranking.
Singapore and Switzerland rank second and third, said UNCTAD.
Singapore has surged 16 positions since 2017, with increased values across all indicators. It now ranks among the top countries in accounts, secure server penetration and postal reliability. Switzerland also rates favorably on all indicators.
Britain has climbed to the fourth position, boasting the highest B2C spending per shopper in Europe and the world's highest proportion of B2C revenues to GDP.
Norway is fifth and Sweden eighth, boasting the world's highest values for all indicators except secure server penetration.
The Netherlands, which ranked third in 2017, ousted Luxembourg, which dropped out of the top 10 as a result of a sharp fall in its postal reliability score.
"The Netherlands has high values for most indicators, particularly in secure servers -- a proxy for e-commerce shops -- where it is top ranked among all 151 countries included in the index," Shamika N. Sirimanne, director of UNCTAD's division on technology and logistics, said.
"The country also has the second highest proportion of online shoppers in the world -- 76 percent of the population aged 15 and older."
Iceland, ranked sixth, has near-ubiquitous internet access with 98 percent of the population online, the highest in the world (with Bahrain and Norway).
Its score is brought down by a relatively low level of postal reliability, possibly a reflection of challenging terrain and weather conditions in the country.
One alternative is drone delivery, which has already been launched by Iceland's biggest B2C e-commerce company, said UNCTAD.
New Zealand ranks ninth, and Denmark completes the top ten.
