Ecommerce in China is booming. Chinese consumers are increasingly using the internet to buy products and services. And that means competition in the eCommerce space is fierce.
China is the most populous country in the world, boasting a population of more than 1.4 billion. It also has the largest eCommerce market in the world with over $1 trillion in sales. With so many people and so much money involved. It’s no surprise that there are some major players in China’s eCommerce industry.
According to a recent study by the Boston Consulting Group. Online retail sales in China will grow by 55% per year through 2022, with nearly $1 trillion in sales.
Here are some of the country’s most popular eCommerce websites. Know that some of these sites might not be as popular worldwide as they are in China. But they certainly deserve their spot on this list for their innovation and creativity.
eWorldTrade
eWorldTrade is an online trade platform with more than 40 million users in China. Over the years, the site has evolved from a simple trading platform to a comprehensive eCommerce hub with products for domestic and international buyers. With millions of users, it is the perfect b2b eCommerce platform, which you can use to grow your businesses easily. You can browse and search the site by brand name, product name, product category, price, shipping, and delivery options, and currency. It is an extremely user-friendly b2b platform. Which has made it able to be listed as one of the best eCommerce platform names in the country.
Taobao
The Chinese eCommerce site Alibaba’s Taobao is one of the most popular websites in China. It sells more products than Amazon and eBay combined, and the site had over 500 million active users in 2016 alone.
Forums are one of Taobao’s biggest strengths. Forums are eCommerce forums that allow you to post a question, leave a review, or communicate with other customers about your purchase. These can range from $5 to $200 for a five-minute survey. They also allow for purchases to be made and received right on the forum itself, so there’s no need to register and upload your credit card information.
Tmall
Founded in 1999, Tmall is the world’s largest eCommerce platform. By 2020, the company says it expects to increase its transaction volume to $500 billion.
Tmall.com is one of the largest and fastest-growing online sales platforms in China. While most products can only be purchased via Tmall.com, the site also offers a variety of Tmall branded shopping sites that are user-friendly.
Users can start shopping from the first page of Tmall.com. Here, they can buy everything from food and home decor to apparel, electronics, accessories, and even medical products. In addition, Tmall provides a number of branded shops and marketplaces, including those from Amazon, Auchan, Louis Vuitton, L’Oreal, and more.
Alibaba1688
Alibaba is one of the world’s biggest eCommerce businesses. It’s like the Amazon of China, and it powers nearly half of all eCommerce transactions in the country. Alibaba is so big and influential, in fact, that it’s just as big of a company in its home country of China as it is around the world.
The site operates multiple verticals, which all work to make shopping online in China easy. Alibaba is the biggest player in the industry with over 550 million monthly active users, making it the one to beat in China.
JD.com
JD.com was the largest eCommerce company in China until Alibaba took over. Currently, JD is still the world’s second-largest eCommerce company by sales.
Besides its largest eCommerce platform, JD also runs a huge logistics network and provides other related services such as supply chain. On its platform, you can buy a wide variety of products ranging from clothes to home appliances and gadgets, all of which are directly sourced from Chinese manufacturers.
Amazon China
After a successful launch in the U.S. and Europe, Amazon launched its flagship eCommerce site in China. It’s the second-largest online retailer in China and it shows. Amazon has had the market cornered in China since day one, and it’s had a huge impact on the industry. It’s forced other major eCommerce players to improve their operations, invest in the country, and follow suit with Amazon’s innovations. It has also given rise to a few other competing sites that are now imitating the Amazon model.
With 45 million daily active users in China and over 60 million monthly active users, Amazon China is truly an unstoppable force in the eCommerce industry.
Suning.com
Suning.com is one of the biggest chains of departmental stores in China, offering an extensive variety of home appliances and consumer electronics along with every other product you can think off.
Xiaohongshu
No list of China’s best eCommerce websites would be complete without Xiaohongshu. In the retail space, Xiaohongshu is renowned as China’s biggest retail mall. By providing online and offline experience, it offers everything from online products to offline store locations.
Founded in 1999, Xiaohongshu is a unit of Guangdong Tengzhou Port Development, an investment company. It is also one of the founders of the annual China International eCommerce Conference (CIEC), a top-tier eCommerce event in China that attracts around 500 domestic and international retailers, online merchants, and technology experts.
Vipshop
Vipshop was founded in 2004 and it’s the country’s third-largest eCommerce site, despite only having been active for a decade.
And according to The Boston Consulting Group’s study, Vipshop is China’s most innovative eCommerce company. It’s also one of the few companies that made it onto the top 10 list from outside the United States.
Vipshop offers more than 6 million products across 80 categories, but it’s the speed of its shipping that sets it apart. Vipshop aims to get its products into the hands of customers in a fraction of the time it takes with other retailers.
The company gets orders out in just 4 days on average and has seen explosive growth over the past year.
Kongfz.com
This website was founded in the year 2002 and since then it has made quite a name for itself. Kongfz.com is one of the biggest online customer-to-customer and business-to-customer virtual marketplaces in China. With millions of users and a wide range of products, this online ecommerce platform is considered as one of the most recognized names in the country.