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China to be Asia-Pacific's largest online shopping market

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-06-27 15:33

China will replace Japan as the largest online shopping market in the Asia-Pacific region in 2010, with 480 million online shoppers spending $1.4 trillion, a MasterCard survey said on Thursday.

The survey, which analyzes consumer behavior in relation to e-commerce across the region, found that online shopping growth in the region is expected to increase at an annual rate of 23.3 percent by 2011 and this growth is likely to shift from consumers in Japan to new consumer populations in China and India.

"The rising population of upper-middle-income urban elites is likely to boost the online shopping markets in China and India significantly. Domestic consumption spending in the two countries is poised to pick up strongly, underpinned by a rapid pace of urbanization, robust economic expansion and rising spending power of urban elites," said MasterCard.

By 2010, China's online shopping population is projected to increase to 480 million and contribute to 58.6 percent of the total online shopping population in the region compared to 49.9 percent that it does currently.

Meanwhile, India's online shopping population is poised to overtake Japan and South Korea in terms of share of the online shopping population in the region, said the survey.

In addition, 2010 will see China offering by far the largest market in the region in terms of online shopping revenue turnover of 1.4 trillion, and India will rise strongly to emerge as the second largest.

China has one of the lowest Internet penetration rates, but the online shopping penetration rate was unusually high at 70 percent, "indicating that the online population has a high tendency to make online purchases," said the survey.

In terms of total spending on shopping online, the survey showed that online shoppers in the region spent an average of $612.4 over a period of three months, with Singaporean and South Korean emerging as top spenders.

Singaporean surfers spend an average of $770.7 while South Korean spend $707.5 per person.

It also found that majority of the region's shoppers plan purchases and conduct research before spending online, with 84 percent tending to plan their shopping in advance and conduct research on their planned purchases, including browsing on the Internet and the merchant's website and through recommendations.