Chinese online retail market grows long legs in its race with the US

China may surpass the US as largest online retail market for 2013

The United States is currently at number one but H1 2013 results for Chinese retail sales is up by 60.2% ($139.63 bln) and needs to reach $280 bln in e-retail in order to make its mark, according to data from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). Payment Magnates has recently published an article which explains the reasons for China’s growth in this sphere, siting its vast virtual marketplace and e-commerce growth in the international market owing to accessible production and competitive pricing.

The data indicates that if you include businesses purchases, a 45.3% increase in total e-commerce sales has been achieved since last year. It also reveals that internet usage in terms of traffic and purchases is growing in China, particularly with the use of mobile phone devices. And since 244.4 million mobile phones have been sold so far this year, 91% of which are smartphones, mobile e-retail sales are bound to skyrocket – it’s a number game and China is in the business of numbers.

Yet another reminder to e-merchants that with 1.344 Billion consumers in China there are certainly opportunities up for grabs. The trick is that the market is dictated by 3 financial institutions, China UnionPay, being the most dominant, which is why e-merchant entry into the online market and the retrieval of a Merchant Account is so difficult, however, for many industries, there are possibilities to be discussed and Payment Magnates will be publishing a future insight on this very topic.

Image courtesy of Wiki Commons