By Huang Xin

The Development Plan of E-commerce during the 12th Five-year Plan mentions that by 2015, the volume of B2B e-commerce transaction would exceed RMB 15 trillion Yuan, and medium- to small-sized enterprises that use e-commerce frequently will account for 60 percent of total; online retail transaction value will exceed RMB3 trillion Yuan, accounting for more than 9 percent of overall retail sales of social consumer goods.

The Development Plan of E-commerce during the 12th Five-year Plan published recently paints a grand market blueprint: by 2015, the amount of China's e-commerce transactions will quadruple, to more than RMB18 trillion Yuan.

E-commerce has exhibited its robust market vitality in the time of the international financial crisis. Now, from home appliances to furniture, and from dresses to books, credit and payment bottlenecks in online shopping have been broken. Online shopping enters a phase of rapid expansion. Besides, large enterprises continue to attach more importance to online purchase and sales, and penetration of e-commerce in medium- to small-sized enterprises grows vigorously. With improvements of development environment and technical support, the future of online retailing and enterprise application is of limitless promise.  

Breaking retailing bottlenecks one after another

It may still be springtime now, but Zhang Jingjing, who lives in Xuantequ in Dongcheng District, Beijing, has begun to look for an air-conditioner, for the fear that the price of air conditioners would rise as summer approaches. "I just check out the internet. I compare prices on Suning.com and 360buy.com, and pick the one with the lower price", Zhang Jingjing told the reporter.
At the early stage of the development of online retailing, books were the main online shopping commodities. Consumers said that "books would not be too different from their online pictures, and their prices are not high. There wouldn't be much loss if we make the wrong purchase". But that was only the superficial reason. The fundamental reason was credit and payment.

Nowadays, with the establishment of online credit rating systems and the standardization of electronic payment, online retailing is thriving not only in B2C, but also in C2C. Online retailing amount has been growing rapidly, the average annual growth rate during the 11th Five-year Plan being 100.8 percent, and its percentage in overall retail sales of social consumer goods having been climbing every year. It has become an important approach to boost demands and optimize consumption structure.

The development of the mobile internet is making the online retailing cake bigger at a rapid pace. Recently, 360buy launched a new technology. A user can take a picture of a commodity in a bookstore, supermarket, or electric appliances store by use of the photo function of a mobile phone, and 360buy's image recognition technology will be able to search the price of the commodity on 360buy.com.

Besides, according to statistics published by mtop.taobao.com on March 27, the number of individual users that have logged onto Taobao's mobile platform has exceeded 100 million, and is expected to reach 200 million within this year. At that time, a rather big percentage of consumption will be made on mobile phones. Therefore, the Plan proposes to encourage the expansion of mobile e-commerce applications that are based on such new technologies as new-generation communication and the internet of things, and promote the extension of mobile e-commerce applications from life service and public services to industrial and agricultural productions and the manufacturing service industry. It also designates mobile e-commerce pilot projects, including: the demonstration and popularization of such mobile e-commerce applications as mobile payment, public transportation ticket purchase, public utility bills paying, and supermarket shopping; pilot applications of mobile e-commerce in agricultural production and circulation, enterprises management, safe production, environment monitoring, logistics, and tourist service; and enhancing independent R&D of key technologies such as mobile smart terminals, smart cards and chips, card readers, and security management.

Enterprise applications showing off their skills

The home appliances market has been in a slump since the beginning of this year, but e-commerce has been an effective remedy. It is told that in the first quarter of this year, the online transaction volume of Chigo air conditioners grew by more than 300 percent over the same period of last year. Yu Yanchun, executive manager of the e-commerce department of Chigo, said that other than sales on Chigo's self-owned e-commerce platform e-chigo.com, 90 percent of Chigo air-conditioners' online sales came from other e-commerce platforms that the company works with, including 360buy.com and suning.com. In 2011, Chigo scored online sales of about RMB200 million Yuan.

In recent years, large enterprises in China have been attaching more importance to online purchase and sales. The development of the e-commerce business of some enterprises is oriented towards integration and coordination with R&D and design, manufacturing, sales, and management. The penetration rate of e-commerce in medium- and small-sized enterprises has been rising rapidly.

For this reason, the Plan proposes that in 2015, the percentages of online purchase and sales of China's enterprises should exceed 50 percent and 20 percent, respectively, of their total purchase and sales volumes. The online supply chain coordination capability of large enterprises will have been basically established, and some key industrial enterprises will have achieved the basic capability of global business coordination. More than 60 percent of medium- and small-sized enterprises will use e-commerce frequently. The service quality of e-commerce will be improved significantly, and a group of e-commerce enterprises and service brands with international influence will appear.

Enterprise application of e-commerce will show their skills. Competitive large enterprises should further promote the scale development and brand construction of the enterprises' e-commerce application system, and improve the level of coordination between supply chain and business, or even transform their enterprises e-commerce platforms into industrial e-commerce platforms; medium- and small-sized enterprises can use third-party e-commerce platforms, and make positive efforts to integrate into the e-commerce purchase and sales system of key enterprises, or even develop their own e-commerce business.