eCommerce in China accounts for a much bigger segment of GDP, and controls a much larger chunk of consumer spending than in Europe or the USA. Aside from consumer ecommerce, buying online is becoming much more commonplace in the B2B space.
Although the rate of growth has been slowing in recent years, increasing specialisation and improved financing for online business purchase is lively to drive a continued increase in growth. Big players in the B2B eCommerce field reported a 70.5% growth rate in 2016, driven by large increases in steel and chemical sector revenues.
B2B eCommerce Market Share by Revenue[/caption] More players are entering the market, but at a slow pace. 361 startups launched in the space in 2015, and 124 launched in 2016. So far in 2017, only 10 new firms have emerged. Analysts predict that the B2B and B2C eCommerce markets in China will begin to merge. The reason for this is that the B2B market has a consumer back that mainly consists of SMEs. Their purchasing habits more closely resemble those of individual consumers. This trend will benefit Alibaba in a big way, since it has huge amounts of experience and data in both B2C and B2B eCommerce. To find out more about how individual consumers are buying online in China, click here.
