Zhengwang Consulting: 2012 China Online Shopping Consumer Survey Report

On May 2, 2012, Zhengwang Consulting recently released a survey report on Chinese online shopping consumers. The data showed that my country's online shopping continued to develop rapidly in 2011, with the annual online shopping scale reaching 809 billion yuan, accounting for 4.4% of the total retail sales of social commodities in the country, the number of online shoppers reached 212 million, and the penetration rate of online shopping among netizens increased to 41.5%. Influenced by traditional clothing manufacturers' efforts in e-commerce, my country's online clothing shopping continued to develop rapidly. In 2011, the scale of China's online clothing shopping market reached 267 billion yuan, and the year-on-year growth rate was 20.6 percentage points higher than the overall online shopping market.

This survey by Zhengwang Consulting selected 30 cities in my country with the most developed economy, the largest online shopping scale, the highest Internet and online shopping penetration rate and the most representative as the target survey areas, including 4 first-class cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen; 14 eastern coastal cities such as Dalian, Tianjin, Qingdao, Jinan, Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Hangzhou, Wenzhou, Ningbo, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Dongguan and Foshan; 8 central provincial capital cities such as Harbin, Shenyang, Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Changsha, Hefei and Nanchang; 4 western regional central cities such as Chengdu, Chongqing, Xi'an and Kunming. The sample areas and survey methods of Zhengwang Consulting's survey this time are consistent with previous similar surveys.

Online shopping market size exceeds 800 billion Per capita shopping amount increased significantly

Online shopping in my country continues to develop rapidly. In 2011, the amount of online shopping in my country reached 809 billion yuan, an increase of 72.9% over 2010, accounting for 4.4% of my country's total retail sales of social goods. In 2011, 212 million users had at least one online shopping experience, accounting for 41.5% of all Internet users.

In terms of the growth rate of online shopping, the growth rate of central and western cities is higher than that of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and eastern cities. In terms of growth factors, the contribution of the growth of average online shopping amount has exceeded the contribution of the growth of the number of online shoppers, and the contribution rate to the growth of online shopping is more than two-thirds.

Figure 1 my country's online shopping market size and growth rate

Figure 2 Online shopping in 30 cities in 2011

Tmall, JD.com and Vancl increase their market share

Calculated by online shopping amount, in the 30 cities surveyed, Taobao's market share in 2011 was 68.1%, of which Tmall (Taobao Mall), as a separate website, accounted for 14.2%, JD Mall and PaiPai (including QQ Mall) accounted for 5.4% and 3.5% respectively. Compared with a year ago, JD Mall and Vancl's market share increased by 1.1 percentage points and 0.6 percentage points respectively.

Since online shoppers in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen have more shopping platforms to choose from, Taobao's market share in these cities is significantly lower than that in other cities. JD.com's market share in these cities has grown rapidly, and its market share in central and western cities has also increased significantly compared to the previous year.

Figure 3 Market share of various shopping websites

Figure 4 Market share by city

The growth rate of online clothing shopping far exceeds the overall level of online shopping

Clothing is the category with the largest number of online purchases and the largest amount of purchases. In 2011, the scale of China's online clothing shopping market was 267 billion yuan, with an annual growth rate of 93.5%, 20.6 percentage points higher than the overall online shopping market growth rate.

The continued rapid growth in the scale of online clothing shopping is due to the large-scale "online access" of traditional brand clothing companies. They have opened flagship stores on e-commerce platforms represented by Tmall (Taobao Mall), and carried out full-network marketing on a number of B2C platforms such as JD.com, Vipshop, and Vancl V+, allowing Chinese online clothing shoppers to buy more clothing brands and styles at lower prices.

Figure 5 Overview of online clothing shopping in 30 cities in 2011

In the 30 cities surveyed, Taobao's market share in the online clothing shopping market continued to be the largest at 83.9%, while Vancl's market share was 3.3%, Paipai's and JD.com's market shares were 3.2% and 2.9% respectively. Compared with last year, Vancl surpassed Paipai to become the second largest online clothing shopping platform, and JD.com's market share also increased significantly.

Figure 6 Market share of online clothing shopping

Consumers recognize the fun of online shopping

When asked which is more fun, online shopping or shopping, 32.5% of respondents said online shopping is more fun, roughly the same as the 32.9% who said shopping is more fun. However, online shoppers' evaluation of their satisfaction with online and offline shopping has diverged, with an increasing proportion of online shoppers who are less satisfied with online shopping than offline shopping, which may be related to the surge in online shopping complaints caused by group buying and other emerging shopping websites.