China’s ecommerce industry is set to grow into a market of RMB 43.8 trillion (USD 6.6 trillion) by 2020. Among this, online retail may account for RMB 9.6 trillion and enjoy a YoY growth of 20%. Such are the predictions in the thirteenth five-year plan on China’s commercial development, recently published by the Ministry of Commerce.
For the purpose of perspective, consider that USD 6.6 trillion is more than twice the size of the UK’s 2015 total nominal GDP.
The outline stated several goals be achieved in the next five years. They include stimulating the consumption of services and high-end products; bringing in more foreign capital than in the last five years, and promoting higher professionalism among China’s corporations, emphasizing technology, branding, and quality.
Booming ecommerce is driving a rapid development of the delivery services industry. Data released by the State Post Bureau on Tuesday shows that China saw 13.25 billion orders completed nationwide by delivery service companies in the first half of 2016, a YoY growth of 56.7%. The 13.25 billion deliveries made RMB 171.46 billion in total, a YoY growth of 43.4%; whereas international deliveries and deliveries in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan added up to RMB 19.7 billion, a YoY growth of 14.7%.
Analysis by Sohu news shows that the increasing momentum of delivery services can be attributed to three factors: the market of micro-businesses or “Weishang”, the growing demands from rural areas, and the rise of ecommerce in fields such as manufacturing, medicine, and perishable products like as fruits and vegetables. The Internet Society of China predicts that the market for micro-businesses will be worth RMB 360.73 billion in 2016, and have a YoY growth of 98.3%.
(Top photo from Baidu Images)