“Of course it’s quite competitive, because there are hundreds of new stores opening every day on Taobao,” says Ms Zhang.
“Considering that I haven’t been doing this for that long a time, I need to gain experience and grow my own business step by step.”
Across China, online companies large and small are learning how to be effective e-commerce players – or fail like US goliath eBay, which was trounced by upstart Taobao back in 2006.
In 2010, China’s online shopping industry had a turnover of $80bn, and grew 87% year-on-year.
China’s 420 million internet users spend around a billion hours each day online – and last year, 185 million made at least one online purchase.
According to Boston Consulting Group, the volume is expected to increase fourfold by 2015.
Online shopping now accounts for more than 5% of China’s retail sales, and Taobao’s sellers are behind 70% of the country’s online transactions.
E-commerce is changing the way Chinese consumers think about shopping: online, it is more social than a hard sell. It’s a new engaging experience to savour.
In Chinese retail, trust is a rare commodity. There are plenty of fakes online, and buyers are often cursed by scams or shoddy goods.
Still, consumer faith in e-commerce stores is remarkably robust.
That’s because, apart from its convenience, online shopping has shifted the balance of power from sellers to buyers.
China’s consumers have the upper hand like never before – and it’s not just because there are more traders at their fingertips than in the local High Street.
