Competition heats up in China's mobile ecommerce market

M-commerce is poised for significant growth in 2014, according to IDC

With more and more Chinese shoppers turning to their mobiles to purchase online, marketers are ramping up efforts to capture consumers on the go.

China’s m-commerce market is set to reach 155.2bn ($24.9bn) in 2014, a year-on-year increase of 67.9% from 2013 levels.

Mobile shopping formed a sizeable part of total transactions on China’s “double eleven” discounting holiday last year.

According to Jiang Jialin, a senior market analyst at consulting firm IDC China, the mobile e-commerce market will not be “a simple migration from PCs to mobile terminals”, but will be “an individual-consumer-centric reconstruction of industrial models.”

With more detailed and accessible customer data to hand, e-commerce platforms are likely to customise their offerings to consumers. Brand vendors will also be looking to improve customer relationship management and reduce the cost involved in purchasing channels.

E-commerce platforms are also exploring ways to integrate their offerings into mobile versions of social media sites, where advertising space is more limited.

Jiang believes the rise of m-commerce will give smaller players a chance to compete in China’s monopolistic e-commerce market. Taobao, China’s largest online shopping portal by far, is already expanding aggressively into the m-commerce segment, offering substantial discounts for users buying from mobiles and other portable devices.  However, providing a convenient, personalised service will be key to winning over mobile shoppers.