Couples with children spend most on overseas online stores

Chinese parents, especially those with children under the age of 6, have become the largest spenders on overseas online stores, according to a survey released by payment service provider PayPal Inc on Friday.

Three-quarters of 1,500 interviewees who use overseas shopping platforms are married. Couples with children spend 15 percent more than childless couples and 39 percent more than their peers who are single, the survey found.

About 47 percent of the respondents have children under 6, and members of this group have a higher-than-average annual household income of 408,800 yuan ($66,000). Sixty percent of them live in major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

The items bought most frequently from overseas online stores are baby products, according to the survey. Other popular items include clothes, cosmetics and electronic devices.

More than half of the respondents with children under 6 say a desire to obtain genuine products, rather than fakes, is the main reason they shop on overseas platforms. They spend a week on average evaluating products before placing an order, but make the final decision to buy within just a few hours or a day - much faster than their peers.

The shorter decision-making period is mainly because these parents are frequent users of overseas online shops and are familiar with the products being offered.

Yang Zihui, 32, an art teacher at a primary school in Shanghai, buys most of the items she needs for her 3-year-old son on overseas online stores. She uses major US platforms such as Amazon to shop for shampoo, shower gel, body lotion, sunscreen, books and toys for her son. Her most recent order, for 10 items of children's clothing, was placed with Ralph Lauren's website when the company held a sale this month.

Yang buys items such as toothpaste, toothbrushes, diapers and dental floss from Japanese websites, and purchases health products from a site in New Zealand.

"For products that my son uses every day, safety is my top priority," she said. "I am kind of intimidated by frequent media reports exposing the scandals of safety problems involving toys or clothes made by domestic manufacturers.

"I hardly ever use overseas shopping agents, as it is really hard to tell if a product is genuine. If I don't need the product immediately, I always shop directly on overseas platforms."

A recent survey conducted by market research company Nielsen found that body wash, toothpaste, paper towels, hair care products and detergents are the five types of goods that Chinese consumers are most willing to buy online.

Millennials between the ages of 21 and 34 and Generation Z, those between 15 and 20, are most likely to order groceries online for home delivery.

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange has disclosed that Chinese consumers spent more than $1.5 billion on overseas shopping platforms last year. The Ministry of Commerce said the country's e-commerce retail volume surged by 49.7 percent year-on-year in 2014, reaching 2.8 trillion yuan ($450 billion).

An executive meeting of the State Council presided over by Premier Li Keqiang last month supported moves to draw up inspection and quarantine policies for cross-border e-commerce and the removal of unreasonable charges in the import process.