News

Chinese online retail sales at all-time high in 2013 - report

Wednesday 28 May 2014 00:50 CET | News

For 2013, Chinese online retail sales have exceeded those in the US, thus gaining the first place in the world for ecommerce sales, a recent report shows.

According to a study conducted by China’s Development & Research Center of the State Post Bureau and Deloitte, China’s ecommerce and delivery industry both benefited from growth between 2006 and 2013, tripling the numbers to account to USD 294 billion (CNY 1.8 trillion) in 2013. The Chinese delivery industry is currently the second largest in the world.

In the five years starting with 2008, China’s online shopping market had a constant annual growth rate of 70%, with 70 up to 300 million online shoppers. Out of the entire retail sector, online shopping initially made up for 1.3%, then jumped at 7.4%, according to insight provided by Wind Information.

Findings indicate there was also an increase in what concerns the frequency of online transactions. In 2012, around 54% of consumers made online purchases more than ten times, and within this percentage, those who made more than USD 800 (CNY 5,000) per month doubled from 2008 to nearly 20%.

The report also shows that the delivery industry had to benefit, with almost 26.4% of online shoppers choosing to make purchases on the internet because the goods they buy can be delivered to their houses. As a result, the number of deliveries in China tripled between 2006 and 2013, reaching a peak in 2010, when the delivery market scale grew by 57%. In November 2013 the total volume of delivery in 2013 accounted for USD 9.2 billion, and it is expected to reach USD 44 billion, if the growing rate remains constant.

Check out our Cross-border Ecommerce Research section here for more info on specific ecommerce facts & figures, preferred payment methods, risk and fraud, as well as ecommerce legislation & regulation in China.


Free Headlines in your E-mail

Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.

Subscribe now

Keywords: China, online retail sales, ecommerce, 2013, delivery
Categories: Payments & Commerce
Companies:
Countries: World
This article is part of category

Payments & Commerce






Industry Events