A report jointly released by Alibaba and Accenture revealed that China is poised to become the largest cross-border e-commerce market by 2020, as online retailers are expected to sell up to USD994bn worth of products to overseas customers by then, with China being the key driver of growth.
The report said global online retail will increase by 15% annually from USD1.6tr in 2014 to USD3.4tr in 2020. The growth will be driven by Chinese consumers. China's cross-border retail soared by 30% in 2014 to USD676bn and the amount is expected to reach USD1.04tr by 2016, the China E-Commerce Research Center said.
Even stronger growth is expected for cross-border retail, which is expected to rise 27 percent annually to hit 1 trillion by 2020, as consumers who shop for overseas products online are set to triple during this period.
A growing number of Chinese online retailers, led by e-commerce giant Alibaba and its chief rival JD.com, have capitalized on the growing domestic appetite for foreign products.
Predictions are that much of the growth will be driven by Chinese consumers who have been snapping up foreign products outside China or placing orders online. More than 100 million Chinese people travelled overseas last year spending more than 1 trillion yuan, data from China's Ministry of Commerce showed. That number will continue to grow.
