China project to account for 50 percent of online market

A new report from German-based e-commerce intelligence firm yStats has revealed that China has been projected to account for more than 50 percent of the world’s online retail market in 2017, according to its 'China B2C E-Commerce Market 2017’ report.

The forecast comes as yStats states that China’s immense population size and high online shopper penetration among internet users means that the country is leading the global business-to-consumer e-commerce marketplace in spite of its internet penetration of just above 50 percent of total population.

The report reveals that online share of total retail sales in the country is already in the double-digits, with around two-thirds of internet users in urban China really shopping online, with this share even higher in top cities.

With the market in China is showing “distinct signs of maturity” yStats reveals, the report also adds that it expects China’s internet retail sales to moderate in the coming years, declining from the high double-digit rate of recent years.

However, it adds that more e-commerce growth is still expected by 2020 due to increasing internet and online shopper penetration rates, growing frequency of online purchases by urban consumers and, most of all, from the surge of online retail sales in rural China, which has more than doubled between 2015 and 2016. Over half a billion people live in rural China, and yet they account for just above 25 percent of Internet users and even fewer online shoppers, indicating strong future growth potential.

Competition within the e-commerce market is still dominated by China’s top two platforms, the largest of which is Tmall.com of Alibaba Group, taking more than 50 percent of the market share in 2016. Its main runner-up, JD.com, did however managed to increase its share by a few percentage points compared to 2015.