Online retail sales in Zhejiang province, where Alibaba’s HQ is located, reached 535.1 billion yuan (US$79.3 billion) in the first half of 2017. Exports sold online to other provinces reached 20.3 billion yuan (US$3.0 billion) led by Jinhua and Hangzhou city. Apparel, shoes, and bags category is the top selling product category.

Zhejiang Province Online Retail Overview

In H1 2017, online retail sales in Zhejiang reached 535.1 billion yuan (US$79.3 billion), increasing 31.6% from last year. Zhejiang residents spent some 279.7 billion (US$41.5 billion) in online purchases, an increase of 28.17% from the year prior, leading to a favorable inter-province balance of payments of 255.3 (US$37.9 billion) billion yuan with other provinces.

Interprovincial Exports

In the first half of 2017, exports sold online from Zhejiang to other provinces reached 20.3 billion yuan (US$3.0 billion), representing an increase of 39.25%; of these, 55.17% came from Jinhua, 18.18% from Hangzhou, and 9.49% from Wenzhou, for a total of 82.85% of exports sold online.

Product Categories

In the first half of 2017, retail apparel and accessories, furniture and interior renovation materials, and consumer electronics accounted for 33.55%, 17.96%, and 11.52%, respectively, equivalent to 63.03% of online sales.

ONLINE RETAIL BY REGION

Based on local data, Yiwu City, West Lake District, and Jianggan District had the highest value of online retail sales, with Yuhang District, Yongkang City, Binjiang District, Xiaoshan District, Haining City, Gongshu District, Cixi City, rounding out the top ten. Meanwhile, areas with relatively weak sales were mainly concentrated in Zhoushan City, Quzhou City, and Lishui City.

The number of ultra high net worth individuals (UHNWI) in China reached 1.34 million, an additional 130,000 compared to 2015 as of May 2016 according to Hurun Research.

The number of UHNWIs in China whose total assets worth exceed RMB 100 million reached 89,000, with an growth rate of 14.1%.

Guangdong province replaced Beijing as the top region with the most number of UHNWIs (240,000) with a growth rate of 17.65%. Beijing ranks second with 238,000 UHNWIs, followed by Shanghai (205,000) and Zhejiang province (160,000). The combined UHNWIs of this four regions reached 843,000, accounting for 63% of total.

China’s UHNWIs are mainly comprised of four groups: business owners (55%), gold collar (20%), real estate investors (15%), and professional stock traders (10%).

Continue to read China’s HNWIs outbound travel trends »

Top 10 provinces with the highest average online shopping spends on Taobao are Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Fujian, Guangdong, Xinjiang, Sichuan, Tianjin, Beijing and Liaoning according to Taobao based on data from October 2014 to September 2015. Provinces with the lowest average spends are Gansu, Qinghai and Tibet.

Regional economic level influenced the development level of the online shopping market. The top five provinces with the highest online consumption located in the southeast coastal provinces where citizens got a higher income level than the average.

E-commerce in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Fujian and Guangdong has entered an advanced stage. These five regions received and delivered most online order packages in China.

Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai in total account for 15% national delivery packages on Double 11 shopping festival in 2015. Packages the three provinces received on Double 11 accounted for 25% of total and packages sent from these provinces accounted for half of total. High population concentration, a large volume of e-business companies (such as Alibaba in Hangzhou, Zhejiang) and low delivery fees led to busy logistic transportation here.

Well-developed transport and logistics system further stimulated online shopping. The purchasing power is relatively strong in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Fujian and Guangdong provinces. Many were new demands stimulated by online shopping market.

Xinjiang and Sichuan ranked sixth and seventh respectively surpassing Beijing, Tianjin, Shandong and other provinces which mainly resulted from various good categories and low costs in online shopping. Traditional commerce in Xinjiang wasn’t as developed as other regions in China; thus online shopping became an essential channel to buy products unavailable or expensive locally.

Taobao data also showed that Shanghai, Guangdong, Beijing, Tianjin, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang ranked top for being the most diversified online shopping consumption regions. Regions with advanced economic level tends to be more diversified in online consumption. Tianjin, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu also ranked in the top.

Also read: China Retail V.S. Online Shopping 2015

The total number of fans of China e-commerce websites on Weibo reached 24 million by the end of July 2014, becoming a large online community for online retailers.

The post-80s are the primary group of the e-commerce sites fans on Weibo. 20% are from Guangdong province, followed by Beijing (11%), Zhejiang (9%), Shanghai (8%) and Jiangsu (6%).

Women of 26, 27 years old in Guangzhou represent the biggest fan group of China’s e-commerce websites..

China e-commerce total transactions reached RMB2.83 trillion (US$460 billion) in the second quarter this year, a QoQ growth rate of 7.1% and YoY growth rate of 19.9%.

Mobile transaction occupied 20% of total on Double 11, and the transaction grew 560% compared to 2012. This was regarded as the omen of mobile shopping outbreak. Nearly half of post-90s used mobile phone to purchase on Double 11, 2013. It means that online shopping began to transfer from PC to mobile.

Taobao data showed that mobile transaction reached 5.35 billion yuan (USD 872 million), and mobile Taobao daily active accounts hit 127 million. The number of Taobao mobile transaction on Double 11 was 35.9 million, 21% of total transaction. At present, mobile Taobao users reached 320 million.

Different from PC-end online shopping, mobile shopping showed personalized, fragmented and information push features.

30% Middle and Western China Consumers Did Mobile Shopping

Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Jiangsu Province and Zhejiang Province consumers are the main force for online shopping, however, data showed that consumers from middle and western China surpassed tier one cities in mobile shopping.

Tibetan mobile transaction occupied 29.1% of its total transaction, ranking the first in mobile shopping. Followed by Shaanxi and Jiangsu with 27.3%, Shanxi ranked fourth with 27.3%, and Zhejiang ranked the fifth with 27.2%.

Post 90s Love Mobile Shopping

Young people below 25 years old seem to prefer mobile shopping, especially young women. Data showed that 46% young female below 25 purchased via mobile on Double 11 2013, and male consumers below 25 who purchased via mobile occupied 37%. Mobile shopping had become the life-style of post 90s. If PC represents the post 80s, then mobile represents post 90s.

Mobile Shoppers Love to Purchase on Bed

During 4am-7am on November 11 2013, mobile-end transaction surpassed PC-end. Data showed that most people closed their computer at 4:40 am, while most mobile shoppers were still active. Mobile transaction during the period occupied 63%.

Mobile Taobao allows users to check product information and purchase without limit on location and time. Newly mothers loved to shop in the midnight, milk powder, diapers and other babies products sales went up in the midnight.

 Product Information Sharing

Mobile shopping is not only about shopping, it includes getting information and sharing it. Maybe consumers gain information about products through multiple channels, such as Sina Weibo, SNS, advertising, but the purchasing process is more and more centered on mobile. At the same time, the percentage of adding favorite product pages in PC and pay it on mobile is increasing.

Mobile Taobao is more suitable for users to share purchasing experience. One hour after the beginning of Double 11, millions of consumers shared their shopping information on mobile Taobao.

Alibaba’s data showed that in the first half of 2013, Yiwu B2B online transaction reached 2.51 billion yuan (USD 410 million). It is expected to hit 5 billion yuan (USD 816 million) by the end of 2013.

Yiwu, a city in the central area of Zhejiang province in China, is one of the most active free trade markets and famous for its small commodity trade.

Yiwu B2B online transaction in 2012 was 2.24 billion yuan (USD 366 million). The exports of suppliers in Yiwu reached 48.75 billion yuan (USD 7.96 billion) in 2012.

Besides, Alibaba also announced that the number of domestic B2B members in Yiwu was 22,512, and foreign trade B2B members in Yiwu was around 3,000 which occupied 3.75% of total B2B members in China by June 30, 2013.

Shanghai-based Stenvall Skoeld & Company calculated the iOS penetration rate (Apple’s iPhone and iPad, not including iPod touch) in all Chinese provinces and municipalities; and, their estimate puts the total number of iPhones and iPads in China at end of 2011 at 21 million active devices, distributed as shown above.

More than half of all iOS devices are found in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and the Yangtze Delta Region. In Beijing and Shanghai there is one iOS device for every nine and eleven people, in the rest of China penetration is still very low.