Liu Minxia

    mllmx@msn.com

    NEARLY 90 percent of Chinese consumers have shopped online via their mobile phones, a proportion much higher than the global average of 54 percent, a PwC research report showed.

    Shopping online via mobile phone has been increasingly popular around the world in the past years, PwC found in its sixth annual global survey on retail trends, which covered 23,000 consumers in 25 countries and regions last year.

    Three years ago, only 30 percent of the world’s consumers shopped online and now it is 54 percent. If the trend is sustained over the next three years, the proportion will rise to 80 percent at the beginning of 2019, according to the report.

    Roughly 65 percent of Chinese consumers say they shop at least once a month on their mobile phones compared with only 28 percent of consumers globally.

    “China’s position at the forefront of online shopping is premised on three core pillars, namely rising demand from the expansive population, the scale and efficacy of national e-commerce, and efficient, low-cost logistics, which continue to benefit from technological upgrades, such as advanced tracking systems,” said Kevin Wang, a PwC China retail and consumer leader.

    Payment via mobile phone has rapidly gained popularity over the past years. In 2015, 12 percent of global respondents said they favored mobile payment, triple the proportion a year ago. In 2015, 32 percent of Chinese respondents said they preferred mobile payment, double that in the previous year.

    The report shows that the top reason given by consumers for shopping online was “good prices.” Better prices are also the main driver encouraging consumers to make purchases from an out-of-country online retailer.

    Both in China and globally, people are increasingly making buying from out-of-country online retailers. The survey showed that 79 percent of global respondents and 82 percent of Chinese respondents said they have plans to buy products from overseas online retailers.