A staggering 14% of Chinese consumers shop online every day according to a new report by UK multinational professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC).
The report, which was conducted in front of 15,000 online consumers from all over the globe including Brazil, Canada, mainland China and Hong Kong, France, India and The Middle East shows China as the most prominent adopter of online and mobile payment solutions.
In addition to the 14% of everyday online shoppers, 60% responded to purchasing online at least once a week. When comparing the results from the rest of the world, only 5% responded to shopping online every day and 21% shop digitally at least once a week. And standard online shopping is not the only sector Chinese consumers scored higher in compared to the rest of the globe.
4% of Chinese respondents stated they shop using a mobile device every day. 20% stated they use their mobile device once a week, with 27% using their phone to purchase goods and services at least once a month. While the global percentages were 2%, 7% and 12% respectively.
The report also showed more Chinese shoppers use their mobile devices than any other country, with 71% of Chinese respondents shopping via a mobile device at least once, while Americans answered more modestly with only 32%. 37% of Chinese respondents stated they used their smartphone to place dinner reservations with only 13% of Americans stating the same. Chinese residents do not only use their phones for shopping with 35% stating they have acquired stock via a mobile device with 5% of Americans doing the same.
The reason for the large mobile adoption in China is not only because more customers are willing to pay with a mobile device but rather also due top more merchants accepting mobile payment options. Throughout 2013, Square, Paypal and Tenpay’s total transaction reached 124 billion yuan ($20.11 billion), 167 billion yuan ($27.09 billion) and 52 billion yuan ($8.45 billion) respectively. As expected, Alipay topped the list as the most used mobile payment service in China with 906 billion yuan ($146.97 billion) in global mobile Payments being transacted in 2013. All in all China’s mobile payment sector resulted in 1220 billion yuan ($197.9 billion) in 2013.
2014 is expected to see higher numbers and is predicted to reach 2941 billion yuan ($ 477.07 billion) and 2015 is expected to reach 5257 billion yuan ($ 852.75 billion).
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