Traditional Shopping in China
Department Stores & Boutiques
The consumer revolution in China has led to the mushrooming of up-market department stores, shopping plazas, and fashion boutiques in most cities. In many large cities, the towering presence of these stores has resulted in there being fewer street bazaars and night markets, which were popular across China for their range of inexpensive goods. As in most developed countries, there is heavy emphasis on high-end items such as designer fashion, perfumes, jewelry, and watches, while supermarkets offer a range of foods, souvenirs, and household goods at reasonable prices.
Opening Hours
Shops in China are usually open from 8:30 a.m. until fairly late in the evening— around 8 p.m.. The opening and closing times of shops, however, may vary from place to place. For instance, in some areas they open as early as 8 a.m., and stay open until well after 8 p.m.. Some of the large shopping centers in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong don’t close before 9 p.m.. Local food shops and markets selling fresh produce remain open for business from early in the morning until late at night. Visitors should note that some shops remain closed on public holidays, the most important being the Chinese New Year (Spring Festival).
Markets
The best way to experience China’s diversity and its many ethnic cultures is to visit the bustling local markets, especially in rural areas. Held on specific days of the week, these are locally known as “ganji”, which means “going to market”. Traditionally, people from the surrounding countryside came into town on market days to buy or sell their farm produce. Nowadays however, rural markets are expanding their scope, and it is not uncommon to see stalls selling a range of household items from toothbrushes to woks and cooking pots. While some markets still follow the lunar calendar, which is confusing for most visitors, many have shifted to a more regular schedule. Such markets are busiest between mid-morning and mid-afternoon. The variety of food, souvenirs, and domestic items on sale is astounding, but be prepared to bargain hard.
Bargaining
Bargaining is a common practice in China, especially in street markets, night bazaars, and souvenir stands. Make a comparison of prices and be conscious of what others are paying, particularly local Chinese. The prices in department stores and large shopping malls are usually fixed.
The Rise of E - commerce in China
A Brief History
E-commerce is the business activity of buying or selling of products by means of online services or over the Internet. Online retailing, electric markets, and online auctions are its three areas. E-commerce may take place on retailers’ Websites or mobile apps, or those of e-commerce marketplaces such as on Amazon, or Tmall from AliBaba. E-commerce is believed to have its “seminal act” in the beginning of 1970s in USA while it was not initiated until Alibaba Group was established in China in 1999. Nevertheless, e-commerce markets have been increasing at high rates. The online market is expected to grow by 56% between 2015 and 2020. In 2017, retail e-commerce sales in the world added up to 2.3 trillion US dollars and e-retail revenues are projected to grow to 4.88 trillion US dollars in 2021.
The first e-commerce platform in China is 8848 established on May 18, 1999 and developed rapidly during the next two years from 1999 to 2000. Three months later came Eachnet which entered into alliance with eBay in 2002. Another one month later, in September 1999, Alibaba Group was founded in Hangzhou. Four years later in May 2003 Taobao was founded in the apartment of Ma Yun (Jack Ma). In April 2008, Tmall was first introduced by Taobao as an online shopping mall, dedicated to the service for the third-party brands and retailers. Another large and highly competitive e-commerce company is JD, whose company was first founded in 1998, and its retail platform went online in 2004.
Over 10 years ago, China accounted for less than 1% of the global e-commerce market; today its share is 42%. In comparison, the United States’ share of the market is 24%, down from 35% in 2005. China’s e-commerce now handles more transactions per year than France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States combined. China’s consumption-related mobile payments totaled $790 billion in 2016,11 times that of the United States. One explanation for this dominance is the explosion in use of mobile payments, which soared from 25% of mobile Internet users in 2013 to 68% in 2016. In total, 731 million of China’s 1.4 billion citizens use the Internet.
Taobao and Tmall
After eBay acquired Eachnet, Taobao was launched in May 2003 by Alibaba, which hosts the largest B2B (Alibaba.com), C2C (Taobao), and B2C (Tmall) marketplaces in the world. As a Chinese online shopping website established by Alibaba with its headquarter in Hangzhou, Taobao is the biggest e-commerce website and the seventh most visited website in the world. It facilitates C2C (consumer-to-consumer) retail by providing a platform for small businesses and individual entrepreneurs to open online stores that mainly cater to consumers in Chinese-speaking regionsand abroad. As of March 31, 2018, it boasts over 617 million monthly active users.
It is called “the country’s biggest online marketplace” by The Economist. Sellers are able to post goods for sale either through a fixed price or auction. Most of the products are new merchandise sold at fixed prices. Consumers can make assessment of seller backgrounds by information available on the site, including ratings, comments and complaints.
In April 2008, Taobao introduced a newly dedicated B2C platform called Taobao Mall or Tmall to complement its C2C marketplace. Operated in China by Alibaba Group, Tmall is a platform for local Chinese and international businesses to sell brand name goods to consumers in Chinese-speaking regions. Being the world’s second biggest e-commerce website after Taobao, it has over 500 million monthly active users and is the eighth most visited website in the world as of February 2018. Alipay, an online payment platform owned by Alibaba Group, is the preferred payment solution for transactions on Tmall.
Tmall currently boasts more than 70,000 international and Chinese brands from over 50,000 merchants and serves more than 180 million buyers. Here on the C2C e-commerce platform on Taobao Marketplace, buyers and sellers can communicate prior to the purchase through AliWangWang. Chinese online shoppers have formed the habit to “chat” with the sellers or their customer service team through AliWangWang to inquire about products, engage in bargaining before purchase.
Up to 2016, both Taobao Marketplace and Tmall have over one billion product listings. They enjoyed a combined transaction volume of 3 trillion yuan in 2017, more than that of all US retailers and e-commerce sites combined. The company aims to double the transaction volume to 6 trillion yuan by 2020.
JD.com
Known as Jingdong, JD.com is a Chinese e-commerce company with its headquarter in Beijing. The company was first founded as Jingdong Century Trading Co., Ltd in 1998. Currently it is one of the biggest B2C online retailers in China on the basis of transaction volume and revenue. In 2016 Wal-Mart sells its Chinese e-Commerce business Yihaodian to JD.com in exchange for a 5.9% equity stake with the market value of $1.5 billion. In 2017 JD.com achieved a sales record of $19.1 billion in 2017 Singles’ Day. As of the first quarter of 2018, the platform has 301.8 million active users.
JD.com provides online shopping and claims “authentic low price and quality assurance” and “customer first”. It also boasts the leading company in high tech and AI delivery by means of drones and robots throughout the world. Moreover the company possesses the largest drone delivery system, infrastructure and capability in the world. JD.com has started testing delivery services by robots and constructing drone delivery airports. By launching its first autonomous truck, it has initiated operating driverless delivery services.
