McKinsey report finds Chinese e-tailers could drive the nation's economic growth.
E-commerce sales reached more than $300bn in 2013 - surpassing the US market - and could account for 20% of China's economic growth within the next ten years, according to a report from consultancy group McKinsey & Co.
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Doing the weekly shop Image: The report also showed that 70% of total e-commerce sales came from China's largest 250 cities and has been fuelled in no small part by the increasing adoption of smartphone technology. More than 600m people now have access to the internet.
Researchers discovered that 90% of China's total online spend took place on mega store fronts like Tmall, Taobao, 360buy.com and JD.com. While these resemble Western e-commerce giants such as eBay and Amazon in the services provided, they allow for a much greater degree of vendor customisation than their foreign counterparts.
McKinsey predicts that China's e-commerce sales will grow around 15-20% annually to around $420bn by 2020. In the B2B segment, Alibaba held a 44.8% market share in the second quarter of 2014, with none of its nearest competitors holding more than 5% market share.