| Internet commerce clicks up progress |
| Last Updated(Beijing Time):2006-10-12 11:29 |
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China's consumers spent more per person on online shopping in the third quarter from a year earlier as people became more comfortable with Internet commerce and a greater number of sellers tried to cash in by opening their own cyber stores, according to a recent industry report.
The major buying force was people who have worked for three years or longer, and the relatively lower price of the online items has become a less important factor in spurring sales, said the report by Analysys International, a Beijing-based IT research company, and taobao.com, China's largest online auction site.
"It shows consumers are becoming more mature in buying online, and more factors are taken into consideration in their buying, such as service," the report said.
The average spending for the period was 572 yuan (US$71.50) per person in consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer trading, an increase of 107 percent year on year.
Trading has shifted to daily necessities such as milk powder, diapers and other maternity products, kitchen goods, telephone cards and home appliances from the first quarter's digital products, cosmetics and jewelry.
Shanghai ranks tops at 81 percent in terms of the number of registered Website users who actually buy products, followed by Beijing and Guangzhou.
Total spending in consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer trading from July to September was about 7 billion yuan. Taobao.com, founded by Alibaba.com Chairman Jack Ma, reported trading volume of 4.35 billion yuan.
The booming online trade and increased Internet penetration will push payments to more than 30 billion yuan this year, nearly double last year's level, according to iResearch.
Last year, about 55 million Chinese, more than one-third of all Internet users, made online payments, and the number is expected to hit 83 million this year.
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