E-commerce has changed the way Chinese consumers live and its influence keeps growing. China has become the largest online retail market; 1.3 yuan out of 10 yuan was spent online by Chinese consumers in 2015.
In Q1 2016, total online retail sales of goods and services in China was 1,025.1 billion yuan (US$158 billion), up by 27.8% year-on-year. A recent survey conducted by Tencent revealed some habits of China online users.
1. About 30% China online shoppers make impulsive purchase online
64.8% users only access online shopping websites when they know what they want to buy. And, 30.4% browse e-commerce shopping sites without a specific shopping list in mind.
2. Products recommendations in social media is more persuasive than traditional ads.
Social media is better than traditional advertisements triggering online shoppers purchase motivation. 13.2% online users made a purchase after seeing offers from online retailers social media accounts; recommendation from other social media users motivated 10.7% to make a purchase.
3. Impulsive online shoppers rely more on mobile.
The main scenario for impulsive China online shoppers are browsing online shopping websites and buy what they are interested in (51.9%). In comparison, only 19.6% rational online shoppers do that.
Mobile shopping has the most impact on impulsive shoppers; 48.1% of them make a purchase while surfing on mobile.
4. Regular online friends’ recommendations are more influential than online celebrities
Once acquired a large number of ordinary users’ review information, the recommended products can be more persuasive than social online shopping experts’ recommendation to drive a user’s desire to buy.
Among purchases originated from online recommendations, online ordinary users’ review are more purchase (27.7%), followed by those from social online shopping experts (10.7%) and online celebrities (3.6%).
5. China online shoppers value unique features and experiences more.
Only 3.9% respondents deem “where to buy” informaiton valuable. USP, use experience and pricing are much more valuable information.
6. More post-00s’ online shopping decisions are influenced by celebrities.
29.5% post-00s internet users, those born in and after year 2000, would buy products recommended by their favorite celebrities. That ratio is only 8.8% and 6.3% among post-90s and post-80s respectively.
7. China online users are less interested in popular products with low prices.
Only 21.3% respondents in Tencent’s survey would follow social media accounts or communities who recommend lower priced products; 40.9% would follow them for saving shopping time.
Also read: China Cross-border Transactions to Reach US$1 Trillion in 2016