Chinese consumers are increasingly shopping online worldwide. According to a study released July 31 by marketing and consulting agency Westwin, 67 percent of Chinese e-commerce consumers had a cross-border shopping experience last year, a figure that’s up sharply from 34 percent a year earlier.
On average, China’s cross-border buyers order from overseas more than once a month, the report shows.
This rising demand for items from overseas has prompted the country to import 1.5 trillion yuan (US$220.3 billion) worth of items overseas in 2017, bringing the total transaction volume on cross-border platforms to over 400 billion yuan (US$58.7 billion), the report indicates.
The country’s cross-border e-commerce shoppers are generally wealthier than those who only shop at home. 53 percent of cross-border consumers spent more than 10,000 yuan (US$1,468) and 15 percent of them over 20,000 yuan (US$2,936) in the past 12 months. In particular, female consumers and those with children show higher frequency of purchases and spending than others, the report finds.
Among a variety of e-commerce platforms for cross-border shopping in China, Tmall Global, JD Worldwide and Amazon have been favored by residents of China’s big cities. NetEase’s Kaola, Suning (苏宁), Vipshop and Redbook were the go-to places for residents of smaller towns. The report also said that “authenticity with guaranteed quality” was the main factor that determined consumers’ choice for the e-commerce platform.
When it comes to processing orders, Alibaba’s payment solution Alipay was number one with 91 percent of those surveyed. This was followed by bank cards (68 percent) and WeChat Pay (64 percent).
China’s appetite for foreign goods has shown consistency and maturity. 26 percent of those surveyed are frequent buyers who have placed over 20 cross-border orders in the last 12 months.
Cosmetics became the best-selling category. Female consumers continued to be the largest contributors to cosmetics sales, but the male counterpart is catching up fast. The apparel and footwear category took second place, followed by electronic products and groceries.
China’s Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) are the most effective channel (67 percent said they turn to KOLs to know what to buy) to influence consumers’ purchasing decisions, even more important than factors such as ” product discount” (65 percent), “e-commerce recommendation” (58 percent) and “promotional/creative events” (38 percent).
expenses abroad
The Westwin report also examines the purchasing behavior of overseas Chinese. The study shows that Chinese consumers’ overseas spending, which includes spending by Chinese travelers abroad and overseas Chinese residents, grew to US$200 billion in 2017.
Overseas spending by Chinese tourists alone was US$115.20 billion in 2017, up 5 percent year-on-year. Expenditure for this sector is expected to increase by 4.3 percent to 120.25 billion in 2018, according to the report.
China’s neighbors Japan (67 percent) and South Korea (62 percent) were the most visited countries last year, followed by the United States (53 percent), Australia (51 percent) and the United Kingdom (47).
The purchasing preference of Chinese outbound tourists bears a close resemblance to that of the country’s cross-border shoppers. The cosmetics category was the most purchased category, followed by clothing and footwear, groceries, electronic products and pharmaceutical products.
Bank cards became the main payment method due to security concerns. Alipay was chosen by 69 percent of respondents to complete orders, followed by cash (50) and WeChat Pay (46).
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