A Big Climb in Chinese Online Retail

When online shopping first got started in the United States, it was met with more than a little skepticism. Giving someone on “the internet” a credit card number was considered a level of stupidity on par with tattooing it on your forehead. That changed quickly enough, though, and now it’s an everyday matter. The Chinese, meanwhile, are taking to the concept much more rapidly, and new word from the China Internet Watch says that online shopping is increasingly the biggest way to sell goods in China.

With the year half over, the China Internet Watch figures proved dramatic in their own right; overall consumer goods sales online were up a healthy 10.4 percent, surpassing 17 trillion yuan—around $2.5 trillion US—to comprise a whopping 18 percent of China’s overall retail market.

What’s more, there’s no real sign of plateauing or even a slowdown ahead; physical goods retail is now 25.1 percent an online experience, and food is 20.8 percent online. Clothing is nearly purchased online one time in three at 31.8 percent.

If things continue at this rate of growth, half of China’s economy could be located on the internet within the next few years. That would be a huge shift for the region, especially one still characterized by massive internet censorship.

In fact, it’s kind of difficult to reconcile the two concepts. How is a country that’s so thoroughly dedicated to the notion of internet censorship managing to get this kind of online shopping frenzy going? Influencer marketing in the region is probably nonexistent, and hearing foreign broadcasts about new products available likely next to impossible. Of course, given the pirate media trade in China—though there have been signs that’s being aggressively pursued lately, like a 290 website shut down in late December—there might be other ways to get this content than through official channels.

Regardless of the method, it’s clear that online shopping is huge in China, and given the growth of mobile payments in the country, the two are likely to carry on growth in tandem for the foreseeable future. In the end, a lot more Chinese shopping will be done online, and that may ultimately mean trouble for the Great Firewall.