China's online retail takes the top spot in the world

More and more Chinese people like to shop online without leaving home. Cai Yudong, deputy director of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology of the Ministry of Commerce, disclosed that China has become the largest online retail market in the world. In 2013, the number of online shopping users reached 302 million, and the annual online retail transaction volume exceeded 1.85 trillion yuan, which is equivalent to the society. 7.8% of total retail sales of consumer goods. He said that as a strategic emerging industry, e-commerce has played an important role in transforming the mode of economic growth, promoting industrial transformation and upgrading, and promoting circulation modernization. It has become one of the main ways for the country to boost domestic demand, expand consumption, and promote employment.

80% of online shopping for online home-based retailing, which uses the Internet as a medium to carry out commodity trading activities has been developing rapidly in China. According to relevant statistics, from 2003 to 2011, the average growth rate of China's online retail market was 120%, ranking first in the world.

According to the "China Economic Life Survey 2013-2014" released by CCTV, the number of households purchased in China on the Internet in 2013 was as high as 81.52%, and those who prefer online shopping are mostly young people aged 18-25. From the perspective of the city, Hainan, Tibet and Jiangsu are the main enthusiasm for online shopping. The top three online shopping products are clothing, books and home appliances digital products.

E-commerce, including online retailing, will promote and promote the Chinese economy. Cai Yudong said that on the one hand, the tentacles of online retail have extended to all corners of the country, and the role of stimulating consumption has become increasingly significant. On the other hand, the development of e-commerce has effectively promoted employment and entrepreneurship. The number of entrepreneurs in online shops nationwide has reached 962 million.

"The integration of e-commerce and traditional commerce has led to a marked acceleration in the pace of transformation of traditional retailers to the Internet, and it is becoming an important force in online retailing. E-commerce has further promoted the improvement of logistics and distribution services, and Internet finance has begun to push innovation and development in the traditional financial industry. "Cai Yudong pointed out.

Industry insiders predict that by 2020, China's online retail market will grow to a maximum of 4.2 trillion yuan, which is equivalent to the current market share of the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France.

Exceeding the space-time advantage shows that the rapid development of the online retail industry is related to the large demand in the Chinese market. Zhao Ping, deputy director of the Consumer Economics Research Department of the Ministry of Commerce Research Institute, said in an interview with this reporter that China has a large population base and a large number of Internet users, and the total market demand is also large.

Compared with the physical retail industry, online retailing eliminates time and space restrictions and is particularly attractive to consumers. Zhao Ping said: "The current physical retail industry has problems such as unreasonable layout, inadequate information services, and relatively few commodities. Especially in remote rural and central and western regions, there are few physical stores and services are not convenient, and online retail makes up for this. One deficiency."

Technological advances are also boosting the development of the online retail industry. According to the “China E-commerce Development Report (2013)”, technological innovation has become an important driving force for e-commerce to maintain rapid growth. The innovative applications of new generations of information technologies, such as mobile internet, cloud computing, and big data, have become new hot spots in the development of e-commerce.

Zhao Ping pointed out that the rapid development of smart phones has provided convenience to consumers in areas with inconvenient shopping. In the past, rural residents needed to enter the city to buy goods, and now they can open their mobile phones to buy them all over the country. At the same time, the goods sold on the Internet are cheap and meet the needs of more low-income people.

The gradual improvement of online shopping Recently, the "Circulation Blue Book: China Business Development Report (2013-2014)" published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences points out that at present, Chinese commerce is entering an era of deep integration between online and offline, and China's online shopping market will increase in the next three years. It will slow down and the market will enter a relatively mature period.

The online retail industry and e-commerce in the growth stage still face many problems. Li Jinqi, Director of the Department of Electronic Commerce and Information Technology of the Ministry of Commerce, pointed out that while China’s e-commerce is developing rapidly, some contradictions and problems have also emerged. The integrity of the rule of law is not perfect, the regional development is not balanced enough, the supporting system is not well developed, and e-commerce talents Relatively scarce.

"First of all, we must do a good job of standardization work." Zhao Ping believes that the current e-commerce services are difficult to replace the goods, credit card is not convenient, logistics speed, delivery time, product quality can not be guaranteed, consumer rights and other difficult issues, from the capital security, products Quality and service, etc., need to be further regulated.

Zhao Ping pointed out that, secondly, it is necessary to standardize the abuse of market monopoly resources by e-commerce companies. Some e-commerce platforms have a large volume of transactions, occupy a large number of Internet users, form a monopoly resource, and have insufficient openness to other social services. It is necessary to promote the opening of e-commerce platforms, safeguard the interests of SMEs, enhance the rights and interests of consumers, and maintain fair market competition so that the Internet has a good environment for development.

Zhao Ping believes that e-commerce development also needs good external support, such as promoting the promotion of the logistics industry, and promoting financial innovation services including third-party payment and insurance innovation.

“The next step will be to deepen the reform of the circulation system, constantly improve the policy and regulatory system, and gradually solve the problems facing the development of e-commerce in China, such as the industrial environment, market order, network security, and consumer protection, so as to guide the sustainable and healthy development of e-commerce. "Cai Yudong said.