Shanghai wants to build itself into a global e-commerce center, said Gu Jiahe, an official at the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, at the 2016 China (Shanghai) Online Shopping Fair on Dec 1.

The city will focus on attracting more e-commerce giants from home and abroad and push the development of small and medium-sized e-commerce companies.

According to statistics released by the commerce commission, the city's e-commerce trade volume amounted to 1.64 trillion yuan ($238.3 billion) in 2015, up 21.4 percent year-on-year and accounting for 10 percent of the country's total.

The trade volume contributed by consumers' online shopping in 2015 reached 414 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 42.6 percent. Shopping online for clothes was the biggest area of growth, with the trade volume surging 51.2 percent to 188.9 billion yuan compared to the previous year.

The 2016 China (Shanghai) Online Shopping Fair, which focused on e-commerce and Internet Plus, gathered a large number of experts to discuss a variety of topics. Up for discussion were retailing e-commerce, mobile e-commerce, auto e-commerce, cross-border e-commerce, as well as e-commerce innovation and entrepreneurship. The event is considered conducive to Shanghai's goal of becoming a global e-commerce center.