The latest publication from Hamburg-based desk research company yStats.com titled “China B2C E-Commerce Market 2022” shares insights into the B2C E-Commerce market development, latest trends, and forecasts for China, including the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The publication reveals that in H1 of 2021 “Clothes, shoes, hats, and knitting textiles” was the top product category in China in E-Commerce Sales.
China is to remain the world’s largest online retail market and experience further growth of online and offline integration
China is the world’s largest online retail market, currently generating more than one-half of global retail E-Commerce sales of products and services. In addition, the whole of Asia-Pacific, including China, underwent significant changes in the payment industry after the COVID-19 onset in 2020, witnessing a considerable development in online and mobile payments. Mobile payments in the region were rapidly adopted and are projected to accelerate even further in the upcoming several years. The size of China’s B2B cross-border E-Commerce market is forecasted to grow by over 160% between 2021 and 2025, whereas the annual growth rate was predicted to decline steadily after hitting a peak in 2022.
Mobile plays the dominant role in connecting to the Internet and shopping online among consumers in China
Since mobile shopping, social and cross-border commerce drive the online retail market in China, it is not a surprise that Livestream E-Commerce emerged as a big developing trend in China. The share of Live Commerce users corresponded to slightly more than 60% of all Internet users in 2020. Moreover, the number of live stream users increased by approximately 55% from 2018 to 2020 and is forecasted to keep growing in the upcoming years, according to a source cited in the yStats.com report. When it comes to payment preferences, digital wallets had by far the highest market share among E-Commerce payment options in the country in 2020. Unsurprisingly, electronic payments are expected to take up over three-quarters of the total transaction volume in China until 2025.
The Chinese retail E-Commerce market is led by Alibaba and JD.com
As of 2021, Alibaba and JD.com are the largest B2C E-Commerce market players in China, with a current joint market share of more than 60%. However, Alibaba remains the leading E-Commerce company in China. Nonetheless, according to a source cited in the yStats.com publication, Taobao and Pinduoduo were the most popular online marketplaces in China. In Q2 of 2021, Taobao had close to half a billion average monthly visitors, which makes it the leader among B2C E-Commerce sites in the country.
