Online shoppers in China could ring up more sales than Americans by 2015, according to a study by Boston Consulting Group.
Research shows that China’s online shopping market is on target to reach $315 billion within four years as consumers in the world’s most populous country spend an average of $940 each year. That’s twice what they spend today and just below the $1,000 per consumer average in the United States, the largest e-commerce market, according to a blog post from The Los Angeles Times.
China will dethrone the U.S. in that category before 2015. E-commerce will take off in underdeveloped countries that don’t have a strong retail infrastructure.
Retailers don’t have stores in the rural communities where many Chinese people live, but technology allows them to access companies’ websites just like Americans. The bottom line is that everyone has computers now. It doesn’t matter where in the world they are — they can get access.
China’s retailers have stores in about 260 cities. By 2015, BCG expects 365 Chinese cities will have 100,000 or more middle- and affluent-class consumers.
The boost in e-commerce spending in China is a result of growing personal incomes and more familiarity with online retail sites, according to the post. A Chinese online retail giant sold more than 800 million products last year, more than the country’s top five brick-and-mortar retailers combined.
Source: Los Angeles Times, November 2011
