Australian food and agribusiness exports to China have nearly doubled from 2010 to 2015 to AUD $9 Billion.
The Chinese Government policies are designed to cement China as a
global e-commerce leader. In line with China’s transition from an
investment-heavy growth plan, towards a more consumption-driven model.
The speed at which the Chinese e-commerce industry has grown in the past
ten years has come as a surprise to many.
In 2000, China had yet to develop any e-commerce applications and
only had 2.1 million internet users. Payment systems and physical
delivery mechanisms to facilitate the development of e-commerce
transactions were well-developed in other markets but were simply
lacking in China.
A rapidly growing environment
Fast forward to 2015, Chinese internet users are quickly approaching
632 million plus, with the Chinese government target to connect 1.2
billion people to the internet by 2020, which is 85 per cent of the
population.
These trends and others are fundamentally re-shaping the ways Chinese
consumers purchase goods and services, especially the growing
middle-class that is expected to expand from 80 million to 180 million
people, by 2022 the upper middle class will account for 54 per cent of
all households. No matter how you slice the numbers, trends or
forecasts, it’s clear that e-commerce is booming in China.
Chinese platforms underpinning the rise of online transactions
Chinese home-grown platforms, which underpin the rise of on-line
transactions, have increasingly adapted to deliver Chinese consumer
products and food from around the globe. Increasingly there is a need to
invest in both supply chain and social media and mobile devices because
of the important role they play in driving demand for products and
services. More