Topic: E-Business – E-commerce sales in China surge – AFP

BEIJING — Internet sales in China, the world’s biggest web market, soared 60 percent on year in the first half, as more consumers and businesses went shopping online, state media said Wednesday. Underlining the growing appeal of the country’s Internet market, which now has around 420 million web users, sportswear giant Adidas said this week it had opened a flagship online store on China’s largest auction site Taobao. Web sales in China are likely to soar more than 35 percent a year on average in the next few years as more people shop online and more convenient ways of paying for transactions, such as using mobile phones, are made available, Qian said. Liu Ning, an analyst with Internet research firm BDA China, said he expected e-commerce sales to expand by 50 percent or more a year thanks to improvements in service. read more

Technorati Tags: online, china, sales, web, year, ecommerce, e-business