E-commerce drives consumption – China.org.cn

Residents prepare for a livestream program to sell local products in Dacun village, Luzhai province, Liuzhou City, South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, June 14, 2023. (Photo/Xinhua)

China’s fast-growing e-commerce sector has played a crucial role in driving the recovery of consumption, improving people’s living standards and boosting the economy, as more and more consumers opt for high-quality and diversified products through online marketplaces , say experts.

Their comments came as this year marks the 30th anniversary of China’s full access to the internet, which has profoundly transformed traditional economic models, accelerated social development and revolutionized the way people work and live.

E-commerce was a term that was largely unheard of twenty years ago. But today it is one of the pillars of China’s economy, industry insiders said, as they stressed that online shopping is giving new impetus to Chinese consumption, serving as the main driving force in boosting economic growth .

Major domestic e-commerce platforms such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, JD and PDD Holdings, which connect countless entrepreneurs with hundreds of millions of customers looking for cost-effective deals, have already changed the traditional retail landscape of the world’s second-largest economy.

Li Zhongliang, a villager from Donghai County in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, sold crystal products worth thousands of dollars to consumers in the United Kingdom during a four-hour livestreaming session on an online shopping platform.

Like Li, countless other Donghai residents have seen sales increase through e-commerce livestreaming. The turnover of online e-commerce platforms in the province surpassed 28 billion yuan ($3.9 billion) in 2021, representing China’s achievements in internet construction and rapidly developing online retail.

According to a report by market consultancy iResearch, the market size of China’s livestreaming e-commerce segment reached 4.9 trillion yuan in 2023, up 35.2 percent year-on-year.

The development of Taobao villages, which refer to a cluster of retailers within an administrative village where residents have embraced e-commerce primarily by using Alibaba’s online marketplace Taobao, has helped lift many Chinese rural areas out of poverty achieved by promoting agricultural products and other local specialties online.

Mo Daiqing, a senior analyst at the Internet Economy Institute, a domestic consultancy firm, emphasized the importance of the online retail segment in boosting consumption, expanding employment and improving people’s living standards, thereby improving the resilience of the real economy is expanded.

E-commerce was considered a complement to brick-and-mortar operations until a promotional event called Singles Day Shopping Carnival boosted its boom. The Double 11 or 11-11 promotional gala, which was initiated by Alibaba in 2009, has become the world’s largest online shopping event every November.

Both Alibaba and JD have placed greater emphasis on empowering brands and small and medium merchants by helping the latter achieve digitalized operations and offering cost-effective products to attract price-sensitive consumers.

“The online shopping extravaganza on Singles Day is crucial for stimulating consumers’ shopping desire and promoting the recovery of consumption,” said Wang Yun, researcher at the Academy of Macroeconomic Research affiliated with the National Development Department and Reform Commission.

Wang said online shopping symbolizes the new retail industry and plays an important role in reducing transaction links and information asymmetry, improving the transaction efficiency of raw materials, improving consumers’ shopping experience and promoting high-quality economic growth.

China’s retail sales, a key indicator of the country’s consumption power, rose 4.7 percent year on year in the first quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

Online retail sales rose 12.4 percent year-on-year to 3.3 trillion yuan in the January-March period, with online retail sales of physical goods increasing 11.6 percent and accounting for 23.3 percent of total retail sales .

To meet growing consumer demand for a wide range of products and drive new consumption growth points, e-commerce platforms have also accelerated steps to launch new and customized products by leveraging next-generation information technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence and big data.