"They do this by having a good return policy that allows consumers to touch the products and determine if they are of good quality before deciding whether or not to pay for the product."

The guarantee definitely increases PPG's risks and costs if too many consumers return products. The return rate so far is about three percent, and 10 percent if exchange is taken into account.

According to Lai, sales of PPG so far this year have jumped 50 times over the same period last year, and revenue this year is expected to reach one billion yuan to 1.5 billion yuan, according to company data.

Its success story has lured rivals to try and copy. The first page of Baidu.com, China's most-used search engine which mixes paid links with search results, is already plastered with links bought by shirt makers under the key word "shirt."

"We have been working a lot lately actually with helping many retailers determine a catalogue or e-commerce sales model, including two big overseas clients who have looked at this (model) in the last six months," said Rein.

The new comers also include e-commerce sites inspired by PPG to tap online sales of shirts, such as Dangdang.com, China's largest online retailer whose strength lies in selling books. It is rumored that Youngor is also building its own online direct sales team.