China holds the potential to become the biggest market for virtually everything and e commerce is no exception.
E commerce is surging, opening up opportunities for companies if they pay close attention to the quickly evolving marketplace.
In 2010, China’s e commerce sales totaled RMB 460 billion, with projections it will triple to RMB 1.5 trillion in the next three years.
By then, China may overtake the US as the world’s largest e commerce market—with online sales growing to represent 7 % of all retail sales.
The main advantage of using market share as a measure of business performance is that it is less dependent upon macroenvironmental variables such as the state of the economy or changes in tax policy.
But explosive B2C growth is underway, fueling the expansion of China’s entire e commerce industry.
Many big traditional retail names are gearing up to seize the opportunity, including Wal Mart, which is opening up its China e commerce headquarters in Shanghai.
Meanwhile, Taobao is using its 370 million user base to feed traffic to Tmall, its entry in the B2C market.
In 2010 alone, it quadrupled sales, serving as a major profit generator for Taobao.
To better understand what the changing habits of China’s online consumers will mean for both traditional retailers and online only companies, Bain & Company developed an overall picture of the e commerce market in China, including a survey of nearly 600 shoppers in six cities.
While price remains the primary motivator for shopping online, convenience and variety now are major considerations for a surprising segment of shoppers.
Saroo Buffett is a business journalist based in Mumbai, India. Saroo has a passion for financial markets and breaking news stories and loves writing about business news, stock market, and economic opinions that matters most to its audience. Saroo spends a lot of time discovering and researching latest financial markets and industry news stories in order to make sure the latest and greatest stories are brought to you first on BigBoardNews.com.
