CHINESE consumers spent more than US$1.5 billion in cross-border shopping online in 2014, latest data showed.

    The payment value for overseas products rose steadily month on month last year, with November and December (the traditional discount season in Western countries) each seeing over US$200 million spent online for overseas products, according to figures released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) late Tuesday.

    As the end of last year, 22 third-party payment services such as Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s Tenpay, were authorized as pilot providers of cross-border payment services. The SAFE authorized such services across the country in January.

    “There is an increasing number of overseas businesses expanding their reach to the Chinese market. So far, Tenpay’s cross-border payment service has linked up to 1,000 merchants such as U.S.-based eBay and Shilla in the Republic of Korea,” said Hong Taoli, chief inspector of Tenpay’s international business.

    Such services are making it increasingly easy for Chinese consumers to shop for overseas products, Hong said.(Xinhua)