Nearly half of China’s total online shopping GMV (gross merchandise volume) was generated by shoppers using mobile devices in the first quarter as consumers continued to rapidly shift their e-shopping activities from PCs to smartphones, according to independent research firm iResearch.
In its latest quarterly report on the state of the e-commerce industry in China, iResearch said that shopping via mobile devices surged 168.3 percent in the first quarter of 2015 compared with the first quarter last year, with GMV totaling RMB 362.34 billion ($58.4 billion). Mobile GMV accounted for a record-breaking 47.8 percent of total GMV.
Here’s how things break down graphically in charts from iResearch’s report:
Mobile shopping is growing three times as fast as China’s overall online shopping market, which expanded by 45.2 percent year-over-year in the first quarter.
iResearch predicts that m-commerce will account for more than half of all online sales in 2015 as smartphones become the primary battleground for e-commerce companies and traditional brands seeking to expand their online profile to boost sales.
In accordance with previous iResearch reports, the research firm found that Alibaba Group continues to dominate the mobile-shopping field. Taobao Wireless – mobile businesses under Alibaba’s China marketplaces consisting of B2C platform Tmall.com, C2C platform Taobao Marketplace and group-buying website Juhuasuan – garnered an 84.5 percent share of the mobile-shopping market in the first quarter.
Alibaba Group’s financial results for the quarter ended March 31 showed the company’s mobile-shopping apps generated 51 percent of total China retail marketplaces GMV in the first quarter. Alibaba said it had 289 million monthly active users on mobile commerce apps as of March 31, 2015.
