Imports via ecommerce in China account for EUR 860 million in 2015

There are currently over 5,000 ecommerce companies selling their products throughout the world. There are also over 200,000 local Chinese companies selling on marketplaces worldwide, according to data from the Department of Commerce in China, emarketservices.com reports.

The forecast indicates that total online sales in China will reach CNY 1,260 billion in 2015 (EUR180 billion), with an expected growth rate in 2016 of 23%, to the tune of CNT 1,820 billion (EUR 260 billion). However, China is not only an exporter in the area of ecommerce. The shift in consumer attitudes, in combination with greater acquisitive power and problems with the reliability of some local food products, are fuelling the need to buy products from abroad.

Globalisation and widespread internet penetration in China, in addition to the opening of nine free zone cities (with tariff exemptions for imported products: Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Zhengzhou, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Fuzhou and Pingtan), support policies from the Chinese government (subsidised purchase of telephones with Internet connections for rural areas), the continued improvement of networks, logistical infrastructures, payment platforms and so on, are all leading to an increase in online purchasing of Western products all over China.

From January to August 2015 alone, imported online sales (Chinese users who buy products from other countries over the internet) have multiplied by 2.2 with regard to 2014. Nielsen, in its study entitled Global eCommerce and the New Retail Survey, highlights the main factors contributing to the rapid development of eCommerce in China:

• Rapid urbanisation
• Very large population
• Low labour costs

All of them help the B2C business model to continue growing. The rapid growth in the penetration of smartphones –particularly in rural areas, thanks to programmes of state aid– has created yet another great business opportunity.

One trend popular in China is known as the Hai Tao model, in which end customers order directly through foreign websites, which then send the product to the final destination. According to the China Customs agency and the Chinese eCommerce Research Centre, this model was used by 18 million Chinese users, who spent CNY 140 million (EUR 20 million). This figure is expected to rise to almost EUR 150 million approximately in 2018.