Online retail is booming in China as consumers prefer to wait for their parcels
Another day, another million packages. Image: Reuters/China Daily |
Roaring sales from companies like Alibaba and JD.com have put China on track to become the world's first trillion dollar online retail market.
On Singles Day, the world's biggest online shopping festival, Alibaba saw gross merchandising volume rise to 57.1bn ($9.2bn) yuan, breaking its own record of 36.2bn ($5.8bn) yuan last year.
Research from Razorfish, a digital agency, claimed 82% of Chinese consumers are more excited by the delayed gratification of receiving a parcel through the post than an in-store purchase.
Mobile will also be a key driver for e-commerce growth as consumers benefit from the additional convenience. Indeed, more than 40% of orders on China's Singles Day were placed through a mobile device.
Although it did not disclose the offical figures, JD.com has claimed its sales doubled during the shopping frenzy and has also stated that more than 40% of sales were made through a mobile device. Research and consulting firm, Forrester, estimated that total online retail spending will reach $1.09 trillion by 2019, more than doubling the 2014 forecast of $440bn.
Alibaba has more than 279m customers using its services who placed 14.5bn orders on the website. JD.com has 35.8m customers and also claims it had annual orders of 211.7bn. Gross merchandising volume - which includes all B2B, online shopping and online travel - rose 17.7% to 2.95tn yuan ($474bn) from the same period last year, according to online specialist iResearch.