E-commerce to account for 7.8% of retail sales

China’s online shopping is expected to account for 7.8 percent of the nation’s total retail sales of consumer goods this year, said Bu Guangqi, CEO of Yixun.com, the e-commerce unit of Tencent, China’s largest Internet company.

The ratio will continue to increase from the 2012 figure of 5.2 percent, Bu said at the Hongqiao Trade forum in Shanghai on Dec 3.

“E-commerce will continue to nibble the market share of traditional retailers,” he said.

The share of online shopping as a percentage of the total sales volume has hit 15 percent in the clothing industry, Bu said. Even in the home appliance sector, the proportion has also reached 6 percent.

Li Jinqi, director of the electronic commerce and information department at the Ministry of Commerce, said at the forum that cross-border e-commerce would be the key areas of development in the future.

He said the country would make efforts to encourage individuals to engage in cross-border e-commerce via imports from overseas retailers.