Business-to-business e-commerce boom only just beginning: DHL

(Reuters) - Courier services company DHL Express forecasts the global market for e-commerce between companies will grow by more than 70% to $20.9 trillion by 2027, it said in a study released on Tuesday.

The company, a subsidiary of Deutsche Post, saw its own revenue jump by almost 12% last year to 19.1 billion euros ($22.41 billion) as more companies and consumers switched to e-commerce because of the pandemic.

The trend is now firmly established and will outlive the pandemic, it said.

One factor driving the growth in business-to business (B2B)transactions is the millennial generation, which was already accustomed to using digital platforms for business-to-customer (B2C) transactions.

The millennial generation has grown to account for 73% of all business-to-business (B2B) purchasing decisions, DHL said in the study.

It expects 80% of all transactions between suppliers and business customers to take place on purchasing platforms and other digital channels by 2025, it said but gave no comparative figures for current usage.

($1 = 0.8524 euros)

(Reporting by Zuzanna Szymanska in Gdansk; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Susan Fenton)