Mobile revenue of the country’s top two online retailers accounted for 72 per cent of total online turnover.
Business-to-consumer (B2C) spending represented 52 per cent of the total online gross merchandising volume (GMV) in 2015 (up from 45.2 per cent in 2014), which is the first time it had a larger share of online shopping than C2C, according to Beijing-based iResearch. The B2C market grew 56.6 per cent last year, while the C2C market increased by 19.5 per cent.
As the market matures, iResearch expects growth to fall to 25 per cent next year and 20 per cent in 2018 when GMV approaches CNY7.5 trillion. Next year the B2C segment is forecast to account for 64 per cent of total online retail shopping.
Alibaba’s Tmall maintained its leading role in the B2C market (see chart, click to enlarge) with a 58 per cent share, followed by JD.com (23 per cent) and Suning (nearly 4 per cent).
Alibaba’s retail marketplace revenue increased 42 per cent in Q1 to CNY18.3 billion, while mobile revenue surged 149 per cent to CNY13.1 billion, which represented nearly 72 per cent of total retail turnover, according to China Internet Watch.
JD.com’s GMV for Q1 jumped 55 per cent to CNY129 billion, with mobile accounting for 72 per cent of the total.