SAM ZHUANG, CEO, WWW.SMART-PATH.NET INTERNET RETAILING INSIGHT
With the price decline of smartphones in China, more and more people intend to use the mobile internet. According to the 30th CNNIC china internet report, the number of mobile internet users in China reached 388 million by the end of June 2012, which is more than the total population of the USA. The prosperity of the mobile internet will deeply influence the Chinese ecommerce market.
Firstly, an increasing number of customers will choose to purchase via mobile. Mobile purchase is much more convenient than desktop or laptop purchase since it allows people to buy products anytime and any where as long as they have a mobile connected to the internet.
Taobao, one of China’s largest online retailers, announced that mobile Taobao already had 100 million accounts in March 2012. Dangdang, a New York-listed Chinese online retailer also claimed that 20% of its web traffic came from mobile devices in the second quarter of this year.
Secondly, competition will be fiercer amongst B2C online retailers in mobile internet ecommerce. Taobao announced that mobile Taobao made 83,000 transactions and sold 155,000 products per hour on average in its 2012 Q2 report. 1haodian, a Shanghai-based B2C online retailer, provides more discount to customers who order by mobile. Besides, small B2C online retailers which have no advantage in desktop or laptop internet, hope to gain a large share of the mobile ecommerce market. At the same time, large internet companies which failed in the traditional ecommerce market also want to gain ecommerce market share through the mobile platform.
Thirdly, the large population of mobile internet users will stimulate tier-three and tier-four cities’ ecommerce markets. In the traditional ecommerce market, most transactions come from tier-one and tier-two cities. With mobile ecommerce, tier-three and tier-four cities’ ecommerce market will be booming.
A large population of mobile internet users will also promote the development of mobile technologies in commerce, such as security of mobile payment.
