China Reports Growth in E-Commerce of 45.8%

China is posting phenomenal growth in e-commerce, up by 45.8% in 2014 to a total of $446.6 billion. This growth is due to widely available Internet access, a growing middle class, an improvement in home delivery and shipping options, and the development of Chinese-owned systems such as the Alipay electronic payment platform that makes shopping more secure and convenient. China is the world’s largest Internet market by number of users. 

In addition, China has become the world’s largest cellphone market by far, and a large and growing number of Chinese cellphone subscribers are using advanced smartphones to access the Internet.  China’s total Internet user base will likely top 800 million by the end of 2015. 

China’s Singles’ Day, an e-commerce holiday and the world’s largest Internet shopping event, brought in more than $9 billion in sales in November 2014. A notable difference between Chinese and U.S. online buyers is that in China, shoppers often buy from digital marketplaces rather than traditional brick and mortar retailers’ web sites.  These marketplaces are megasites similar to eBay or Amazon Marketplace.

For more data, statistics and pricing plans on the E-Commerce & Internet Business industry, see https://www.plunkettresearch.com/industries/ecommerce-internet-technology-market-research/

E-Commerce industry almanac 2015

Plunkett's E-Commerce & Internet Business Almanac, 2015 Edition
611 Pages
ISBN: 978-1-62831-353-6
eBook ISBN: 978-1-62831-687-2
Online Edition Available
Publication Date: March 2015