Fake goods hurt e-retail

The big screen shows sales volume during the Nov 11 Singles' Day shopping spree at Alibaba's headquarters in Hangzhou city, East China's Zhejiang province, on Nov 11 2014. [Photo/Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

China's e-commerce giants are enthusiastically flooding domestic media with lavish commercials aimed at warming up consumers for the annual online shopping binge on Nov 11. However, they have still not paid enough attention to their Achilles' heel, namely the widespread sale of shoddy or counterfeit goods by online retailers.

According to a report on the implementation of the Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Consumers submitted to the National People's Congress Standing Committee, only 58.7 percent of the surveyed items bought online last year were genuine or of good quality, and local commerce authorities received 77,800 complaints concerning online orders, 356 percent more than in the previous year.

But with the country's online sales totaling 2.8 trillion yuan ($442 billion) last year, it has become more than evident that e-commerce has evolved into a major growth engine for both domestic consumption and China's overall economic growth.

China's Internet giants have promoted online shopping from scratch over the past 10 years, and they have benefited hugely from the rapid growth of online shopping in this country, as Chinese consumers have been quick to take advantage of the convenience of shopping via the Internet.

However, the selling of shoddy or counterfeit goods online remains a major problem. The latest report to lawmakers urges accelerated legislation covering e-commerce to improve supervision and clarify consumers' rights and sellers' responsibilities.

But while the Chinese authorities should certainly do their bit to tighten regulation, it is China's e-commerce platforms that should take the lead in defending the rights of online shoppers. The fact that China's online consumption is still growing by double digit does not mean they can afford to kick the can down the road.

If they do not make full and innovative use of their position to clean up online retailing, their big spending on lavish commercials could turn out to be a waste of money.