Since 2012, the growth rate of transactions on China’s ecommerce websites was an annual 34%.

It has grown from 8.1 trillion RMB in 2012 to 26.1 trillion RMB in 2017. During this 5 year period, the number of consumers who shop online has grown from 240 million almost 500 million. Online retail trade grew by an average of 40% each year, reaching nearly 5.2 trillion RMB in 2017 from 1.3 trillion RMB in 2012. The number of people employed directly & indirectly by the ecommerce sector has risen from 15 million to 37 million.

This extreme growth has been driven by a very competitive domestic market.

Firms no longer compete on goods, price of speed, but on

• Product ecology
• Integration
• Big data
• Innovation

eCommerce first are now expanding into the offline space. The Alibaba Group have invested over 1 bn RMB in traditional industries. JD.com is planning to open over 10,000 physical outlets too. At the same time, traditional retailers are trying to develop their online presence. Big players in eCommerce are in a race towards developing a full service economy which includes:

• Transactions
• Payments
• Logistics
• Full life cycle customer service

Consumers have been enthusiastic about these inovations, and have as such began to enjoy live eCommerce, augmented reality, virtual reality and social media eCommerce.