The company achieved a 9.2% increase in fourth-quarter revenues, reaching RMB34.7 billion (US$4.9 billion), and a 9.4% rise for the full year, amounting to RMB112.9 billion (US$15.9 billion).

This performance underscores Vipshop’s successful navigation through the retail landscape, leveraging its strategic focus on brand discounts to attract value-conscious consumers.

Significant growth was also seen in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV), with a 21.9% increase in the fourth quarter to RMB66.4 billion and an 18.7% rise for the year, reaching RMB208.0 billion.

The company’s gross profit followed suit, climbing by 19.3% in the last quarter to RMB8.2 billion (US$1.2 billion) and by 19.0% annually to RMB25.7 billion (US$3.6 billion).

Furthermore, net income attributable to shareholders soared by 32.2% quarterly and 28.9% annually, to RMB3.0 billion (US$415.8 million) and RMB8.1 billion (US$1.1 billion), respectively.

Active customer numbers and total orders also saw upward trends, with the former increasing by 3.9% year-over-year to 87.4 million and the latter by 9.8% to 812.3 million.

These figures highlight Vipshop’s growing market penetration and consumer trust.

Eric Shen, Chairman and CEO, attributed the success to the company’s adept execution of its merchandising strategy and focus on apparel, which resulted in crossing the RMB200 billion mark in annual GMV for the first time.

Mark Wang, CFO, echoed this sentiment, noting 2023 as Vipshop’s most profitable year, driven by efficiency improvements and operational discipline.

Looking forward, Vipshop anticipates first-quarter revenues for 2024 to be between RMB27.5 billion and RMB28.9 billion, indicating a cautious yet optimistic outlook amid dynamic market conditions.

Top mobile shopping platforms in China: Taobao, Pinduoduo, JD

In China, the online retail B2C e-commerce grew by 28.4% to a US$226.38bn market in Q4 2018. Tmall took the lead, followed by JD, Suning, Vipshop, and Gome.

China’s online retail B2C e-commerce market reached 1,526.76 billion yuan (US$226.38bn) in Q4 2018, an increase of 28.4% year-on-year.

Revenue from Alibaba’s core commerce grew by 40% year-over-year to 102,843 million yuan (US$14,958 million) as of Q4 2018. Its annual active consumers on the China retail marketplaces reached 636 million.

Related: China e-commerce market overview

Tmall took a market share of 61.5%, with a GMV increase of 29.5% year-on-year. JD ranked in the second place with a share of 24.2%, whose GMV grew by 21.1% year-on-year. Suning, Vipshop, and Gome listed third, fourth, and fifth with a share of 6.7%, 3.7%, and 0.7%, respectively.

71 brands exceeded 100 million yuan (US$14.37 million) in GMV in the pre-sale period of Double 11. Among that, 15 brands came from Tmall apparel, i.e. Nike, Adidas, Puma, Lining, Converse, Anta, Fila, Skechers, New Balance, Underarmour, Uniqlo, Eifini, Only, Vero Moda, and Bosideng. The same figure was only 40 in last year’s Double 11. You can find out the top statistics of Double 11 2018 here.

In 2018, the online retail sales of goods and services totaled 9,006.5 billion yuan (US$1,328.59 billion), up by 23.9% year-on-year. China’s retail market is estimated to hit US$6.77 trillion by 2019 with e-commerce representing 14.46% of this market.

Individual agents (Daigou), who frequently promote products on WeChat Moment or sell products in live streaming and short videos, are facing a new e-commerce policy on the first day of 2019. Under this new regulation, they need to make market entity registration and perform the obligation of tax payment.

In order to meet the ever-changing consumer preferences, companies should adjust their products and marketing based on people’s shopping motives, methods, time and results. Read more on Chinese digital consumer trends here.

China’s US$16bn cross-border e-commerce market overview in Q4 2018

The Double 11 rising on the popularity of China Singles’ Day (Nov 11) is growing bigger every year. Top e-commerce players all saw record-breaking sales on this very day. Sales on Tmall reached 10 billion yuan in 00:02:05, sales on NetEase Kaola exceeded 100 million yuan in 00:03:49, and GMV on Suning exceeded 100 million yuan and 1 billion yuan in 4 seconds and 50 seconds, respectively.

Orders on Vipshop hit 2 million in one hour. GMV on JD exceeded 100 billion yuan in 10 days during this shopping festival. Xiaomi new retail saw GMV reaching 100 million yuan in 36 seconds.

Tmall

This year, Tmall took 00:02:05 to hit 10 billion yuan, 01:47:26 to reach 100 billion yuan, and 10:28:30 to exceed US$20 billion. GMV totaled 213.5 billion yuan (US$30.7 billion) by the end of Double 11.

Tmall logistics orders exceeded 1 billion as of 23:18:00 on Double 11.

The first cup of Starbuck Coffee was delivered by Ele.me “Starbuck Deliver” to a Shanghai consumer in the first 9 minutes 2 seconds on Double 11. Starbuck takeaway has covered 17 cities with over 1400 stores at the very day of Double 11.

The first Tmall Supermarket parcel- a piece of spring water- was delivered to a Qingdao consumer in eight seconds. A consumer living at Putuo District, Shanghai, received a cocktail cabinet from Cainiao-cooperated RRS Logistics 12 minutes after Double 11 begins.

Top 50 Tmall Stores by GMV on Double 11

Jingdong (JD.com)

Total orders from 00:00:00 1 Nov till 22:56:00 10 Nov exceeded 100 billion yuan on Jingdong (JD), which reached 159.8 billion yuan as of  24:00:00 11 Nov, an increase of 25.7% year-on-year.

Smartphone, TV, Huawei, wash machine, and Nike were the most searched keywords. Notably, the sales of TV and air conditioner hit 100 million yuan in 36 seconds and 40 seconds, respectively. The sales of refrigerator and wash machine exceeded 300 million in 3 minutes.

The sales value of laptops in the first 10 minutes reached 2 times as much as last year’s. The sales volume of the translator, student tablet, and keyboard and mouse reached 36 times, 4 times, and 4 times as much as last year’s, respectively.

The total GMV of JD.com for the 11 days ending on 11 Nov reached record 159.8 billion yuan.

NetEase Kaola

Netease Kaola saw sales hit 100 million in the first 3 minutes and 49 seconds and exceeded the entire sales of last year’s in 78 minutes on Double 11. Total GMV reached 4.3 billion yuan, a 140% increase year-on-year.

A consumer living at Jinhua, Zhejiang received an imported paper diaper from NetEase Kaola in the first 26 minutes.

Suning.com

GMV of Suning.com on Double 11 exceeded 100 million yuan and 1 billion yuan in the first 4 seconds and 50 seconds, respectively. Its one-hour sales increased by 153% year-on-year. The sales of air conditioner hit 100 million yuan in just 35 seconds. As of 18:00:00, its online orders grew by 132% year-on-year and offline orders increased by 96% year-on-year. Total GMV was 14.8 billion yuan, an increase of 44.8% year-on-year.

Total orders on Suning Supermarket increased by 500% in the first hour. Among that, fresh food increased by 800%. The top 5 cities contributing most GMV on Suning were Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing, and Shenzhen.

Driven by free logistics and shopping coupons, Suning.com saw orders of products  (ships from and sold by Suning.com) less than 86 yuan increased by 6 times from 1 Nov till 1:00:00 11 Nov. Its first delivery on Double 11 was sent to Haikou in 9 minutes 48 seconds.

Sales on Suning Supermarket and Readbaby increased by 546% and 151% year-on-year, respectively.

Vipshop

Double 11 started from 20:00 10 Nov on Vipshop. Orders exceeded 2 million in the first hour. The first package was delivered in 12 minutes 25 seconds after 11.11 begins. Orders exceeded 8 million in 12 hours 11 Nov, 30% of which was placed by post-90s. Especially, 97% of orders were placed via mobile devices.

Post-90s accounted for 40% of Vipshop’s customers as of Q1 2018. Moreover, nearly 50% of its newly added customers were post-90s, whose favorite products were the facial mask, skin care products, and women’s boots.

Xiaomi

Xiaomi new retail omnichannel saw sales exceeded 100 million and 5 million in the first 36 seconds and 13 minutes and 37 seconds, respectively. The sales on its Xiaomi flagship on Tmall hit 100 million and 5 million in 56 seconds and 33 minutes and 8 seconds, respectively.

Its first order – Mi TV 4S 65 Pro – was placed in the first 19 seconds on Double 11 in the Mi experience store that locates at Golmud, Qinghai with an attitude of 278.0 meters. Its over 5,000 offline stores shared the same discounts as online on Double 11. The sales of Mi Notebook hit 3 billion yuan as of 12:00 on Double 11.

Double 11 Sales of Luxury Goods

The luxury apparel and cosmetics brands, high-end products, and imported products were all booming on Double 11.

LA MER’s 17,200 yuan-priced global limited edition was sold out in the first hour on Double 11, 10 times as much as the total of previous 10 months. 300 thousand bottles of Lancome Tonique Confort was sold in the first 8 hours.

The Italian brand VERSACE that just participated in Tmall Double 11 for the first time saw booking 20 times as much as one day sale in the first three days of pre-sell. 2.83 million Canadian sweep shrimps, 1.37 million Australian steaks, and 140 thousand Mexican avocadi were sold within one hour.

Top 5 countries selling to China on Double 11 were Japan, the U.S., South Korea, Australia, and Germany.

Top 5 popular imported brands among Chinese consumers on Double 11 were Swisse, KAO, Moony, Aptamll, and Dr.Ci.Labo.

More and more paying for hobbies

At the time when sales of brand new smartphones like iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR exceeded 100 million in 30 minutes, DJI Osmo Mobile 2 UAV, GoPro HERO7 Black, and ThundeRobot 911 ME Game Notebook were sold out. 5 thousand Xingxing Lenglian household freezer were sold in 20 minutes.

Seeing from JD’s performance, sales volume of UAV and noise-cancellation headphone, smart pet products, and health and workout kind of dietary supplement increased by over 400%, 600%, and 225% year-on-year, respectively.

As for Suning, sales volume of Smith water heater exceeded 1.5 thousand. Sales volume of electric warmer increased by 321% year-on-year.

Integration of online and offline in new retail is necessary

The first cup of Starbuck coffee was sent by Ele.me “Starbuck Deliver” to a Shanghai consumer in the first 9 minutes and 2 seconds on Double 11.

Tmall had cooperated with 100 new retail business districts, 200 thousand smart stores, 62 Intime Department Stores, 41 Easyhome stores, 100 Hema Supermarkets, 470 new retail supermarkets, and 1 million Ele.me and Koubei businesses to promote Double 11 offline.

Transactions on Xiaomi new retail omnichannel exceeded 4 billion yuan as of 18:00 on Double 11, more than last year’s 2.46 billion yuan on its Tmall flagship shop.

China online retail market totaled 1,974.59 billion yuan (US$311.69 billion) with an increase of 41% YoY in Q4 2017 according to data from Analysis. China’s B2C online retail market reached 1,189.35 billion yuan (US$187.74 billion) with an increase of 43.2%.

Total transactions on Tmall grew by 45% in Q4 2017, accounting for 60.9% of the total B2C market in China. JD grew by 35% to 25.6% market share, followed by Suning and Vipshop.

China’s FMCG spending grew by 4.3% in 2017

China’s B2C apparel market reached 307.74 billion yuan (US$46.37 bn) in Q2 2017 with an increase of 47.3%.

Tmall has 80.7% market share in China’s B2C online clothing market in Q2 2017, followed by JD (8.7%) and Vipshop.

The online retail market in China reached 1.59 trillion yuan (US$244.6 billion) in the second quarter of 2017 (up 31.2% over Q2 2016), with B2C sales accounting for 860.5 billion yuan (US$132.4 billion), an increase of 32% over the second quarter of 2016. Read more »

Also read: China cross-border e-commerce market 2017

The online retail market in China reached 1.59 trillion yuan (US$244.6 billion) in the second quarter of 2017 (up 31.2% over Q2 2016), with B2C sales accounting for 860.5 billion yuan (US$132.4 billion), an increase of 32% over the second quarter of 2016.

The second quarter is the traditional peak of the online sales season in China, with JD.com’s 6.18 (June 18th, a major promotional activity for online sales) having caught on and developed into a summertime companion to 11.11 (the winter sales peak, comparable to the US’s Cyber Monday).

This year, retailers unveiled major promotional initiatives including advertising, discounts, and interactive and live activities. At the end of Q2, data showed that Tmall had captured 51.3% of the online B2C retail market, with JD.com as its primary competitor with 32.9%.

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Tmall was able to leverage big data to better meet consumer demand and envisage different demand scenarios, improve its shopping guides, and broaden its distribution channels. JD.com reached a total turnover of 119.9 billion yuan (US$184.5 billion) during its 6.18 promotion, breaking its prior record; it also introduced a series of offline promotional activities called “6.18 Offline”.

Vipshop harnessed a drive for quality among consumers as a new growth engine, with the slogan “Global selection, genuine articles”, while splitting off its finance business and restructuring its logistics business.

A new round of competition in online retail is in the offing, even as major players continue to experiment with foreign brand offerings, improving logistics, and expanding into cross-border e-commerce.

China’s online retail market totaled US$198.12 billion in the first quarter of 2017 with an increase of 27.6% YoY according to data from Analysis; B2C segment accounts for over 53%, led by Tmall (55.8%). Mobile continued its strong growth of 38.8% in China’s online shopping market, dominated by Tmall and Taobao (80.5%).

The total retail sales of consumer goods in China reached 8,582.3 billion yuan (US$1,245.89 bn) in Q1 2017 according to National Bureau of Statistics. Online retail market totaled 1,349.31 billion yuan (US$198.12 billion) with an increase of 27.6% YoY.

B2C Online Retail Market in Q1 2017

China’s online retail B2C market total transactions reached 720.94 billion yuan (US$105.86 bn) with an increase of 31.5% in Q1 2017, accounting for 53.4% of China’s online retail market.

Tmall remains its dominant position in China’s online retail B2C market with 55.8% market share in Q1 2017 by total transactions, followed by JD (26.7%) and Vipshop (3.4%).

Mobile Shopping Market in Q1 2017

The total transactions of China mobile shopping market reached 1,037.62 billion yuan (US$152.36 billion) with an increase of 38.8% YoY. The growth of mobile shopping in China is slowing down but the quarterly growth YoY is still over 30%.

Mobile accounts for 76.9% of total online shopping transactions in Q1 2017.

Tmall (including Taobao transactions) captured 80.5% of China’s mobile shopping market in Q1 2017, followed by JD (13.5%) and Vipshop (2%). Mobile GMV transacted on Alibaba China retail marketplaces was 2,981 billion yuan (US$433 billion), or 79% of total in Alibaba’s fiscal year 2017, an increase of 49% year-over-year.

In the first four months of 2017, the online retail sales of goods and services in China totaled 1,918.0 billion yuan (US$279.26 bn), an increase of 32.0% YoY.

The total transactions of China’s online shopping market totaled 4.7 trillion yuan (US$680 bn) in 2016 with an increase of 23.9%; and, it’s estimated to reach 7.3 trillion yuan (US$1.06 trillion)  in 2019. Tmall dominates China’s B2C online shopping market with over 56% market share.

B2C online shopping market will grow to over 60% in 2019 from 55.3% in 2016 while C2C continues to shrink.

Mobile shopping begins to dominate China’s online shopping market and will grow to 5.6 trillion yuan; 76.9% of total online shopping transactions in 2019.

Tmall continued to lead China’s B2C online shopping market with 56.6% market share, followed by Jingdong (24.7%) and Suning (4.3%).

Mobile MAUs on Alibaba’s China retail marketplaces reached 493 million in December 2016 while annual active buyers on its China retail marketplaces reached 443 million, an increase of 4 million. It has 82.6% market share in China’s mobile shopping market according to iResearch.

Jingdong annual active customer accounts increased by 46% to 226.6 million in 2016 from 155.0 million in 2015. Net revenues for 2016 were RMB260.2 billion (US$37.5 billion), an increase of 44% from 2015.

Also read: China’s cross-border online shoppers to exceed 200 million by 2020

The total transactions of China cross-border e-commerce market reached 6.3 trillion yuan (US$920 billion) in 2016, including retail and B2B according to a Chinese research company iiMedia. And, it’s expected to reach 8.8 trillion yuan (US$1.28 trillion) in 2018.

The total number of cross-border shoppers in China exceeded 410 million in 2016 and is expected to reach 740 million in 2018. The growth was 78.3% in 2016 and will slow down to 27.6% in 2018.

The total transactions of China cross-border e-commerce market reached 6.3 trillion yuan (US$920 billion) in 2016 from 5.1 trillion yuan in 2015, including retail and B2B. It’s estimated to reach 7.5 trillion yuan in 2017 and 8.8 trillion yuan in 2018.

In China cross-border retail e-commerce import market, Kaola.com (Netease) led in 2016 with 21.6% market share by total sales value, followed by Tmall (18.5%), Vipshop (16.3%), JD Worldwide (15.2%), Jumei (12.4%), and Xiaohongshu (6.5%).

73.6% cross-border online shoppers in China are female; 30.9% have monthly income of between 5,001 and 8,000 yuan; 84% are between 19 and 40 years-old; 45.2% live in the east (Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, etc). Tier-1 and tier-2 cities accounted for 77.4% all cross-border online shoppers in 2016.

46.2% chose mobile as primary devices for cross-border online shopping. 48.2% installed 2 to 3 cross-border online shopping apps.

Near one third (31.4%) of users open cross-border shopping apps 2-3 times per week; 58.5% spend 11 to 30 minutes every time.

27.3% users on average shop cross-border products once a month; 58.5% at least once a month.

42% spend between 301 and 500 yuan per order.

The top product category for cross-border online shopping is skincare and makeup (43.2%), followed by baby products (41.5%) and apparel & shoes (36.1%). Only 20.4% bought cross-border health care products online; but, 37.2% expressed intention to buy in this product category in the future.

Deloitte’s annual Global Powers of Retailing report identifies the 250 largest retailers around the world. JD.com ranks on top of all Chinese companies in the Top 250 retailers list.

14 Chinese companies including China and Hong Kong who made it to the top 250 list include:

• JD.com, 36
• Suning Commerce Group Co., Ltd., 46
• A.S. Watson Group, 51
• China Resources Vanguard Co., Ltd., 54
• Gome Home Appliance Group, 69
• Dairy Farm International Holdings Limited, 85
• Shanghai Bailian Group Co., Ltd., 121
• Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Limited, 128
• Belle International Holdings Limited, 145
• Yonghui Superstores Co., Ltd., 146
• Vipshop Holdings Limited, 157
• Chongqing Department Store Co., Ltd., 192
• Dashang Co., Ltd., 195
• Nonggongshang Supermarket (Group) Co. Ltd., 214

Retailers based in China and Hong Kong generated the strongest growth in the region with combined revenue up 12.9% in FY2015 although they posted a slight growth of 0.7% net profit margin.

Vipshop (1), JD.com (2), Yonghui Superstores (13), and Suning (48) are among the top 50 fastest-growing retailers for FY2010-2015. JD.com (2), Suning (5), Vipshop (8), Dangdang (47) were also in the top 50 e-retailers for FY2015.

In 2016, the national online retail sales of goods and services in China was 5,155.6 billion yuan, increased by 26.2% YoY.

Also read: What are consumers buying for Chinese New Year 2017?

The top e-commerce platforms in China are JD, Tmall, and YHD in 2016 according to Kantar Retail.

Top 10 e-commerce platforms in 2016 based on comments from more than 200 participants from FMCG manufacturers are:

1. JD
2. Tmall
3. YHD
4. vip.com
5. Amazon
6. Suning
7. Jumei
8. Xiaohongshu
9. sfbest.com
10. Feiniu

The top roles of of e-commerce according to Kantar survey:

1. Additional sales channel
2. Brand building
3. Stronger communication with consumer/shoppers
4. Penetrating lower-tier cities or markets
5. Additional profit
6. An efficient way to enter new brands / new products into the China market

Total transaction value of China online shopping market reached 1.15 trillion yuan (US$166.85 billion) in Q3 2016, up 23.6% YoY or 2.6% QoQ, according to data from iResearch.

B2C (600 billion yuan) accounted for 55.1% of China online shopping market in Q3 2016, led by Tmall (56.2%), Jingdong (25.1%), Suning (4.4%), and VIPshop (3.2%).

The total transactions of China mobile shopping market reached 820.15 billion yuan (US$), an increase of 56.1% YoY. Mobile accounted for 71.6% of China’s online shopping market, led by Tmall/Taobao with 82.7% market share.

China’s online shopping market transactions totaled RMB 1,117.8 billion (USD 167.51 billion) in the second quarter of 2016 with a growth rate of 27.6% YoY or 14.9% QoQ according to iResearch.

Online shopping represented 14.3% of China’s total consumer retail sales in Q2 2016. And, B2C accounted for 54.5% of total online shopping transactions, led by Tmall (54.5%) and JD (26.3%).

From January to June, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 15,613.8 billion yuan, up by 10.3 percent year-on-year. according to National Bureau of Statistics of China. The online retail sales of goods and services was 2,236.7 billion yuan, increased by 28.2% year-on-year.

Mobile online shopping market reached RMB 783.44 billion (USD 117.4 bn) in Q2 2016 in China, an increase of 75.9% YoY, accounting for 70.1% of total online shopping transactions.

Alibaba continued to dominate China’s mobile shopping market in Q2 2016 with over 80% market share.

China’s top 4 B2C websites, JD, Jumei, Dangdang and Vipshop announced financial reports in Q2 2015, JD further inproved its business scale while suffering from greater losses. Jingdong lost over 1.8 billion yuan in the past year.

JD in Q2 2015 gained a revenue of 45.9 billion yuan (about US$7.4 billion), an increase of 61% year-over-year, mainly due to the increase of active users and orders; Vipshop totaled a net revenue of 9 billion (US$1.5 billion), 77.6% increase compared with 5.1 billion in the previous year; Jumei got a revenue of 1.963 billion yuan (US$308.1 million), 100% growth compared with US$154.4 million the same period last year; and Dangdang got a revenue of 2.312 billion yuan (US$373 million), a YoY increase of 29.8%, which was the slowest among the four companies.

Also read: China Mobile Shopping Market Value Exceeds RMB36 Bln in Q1 2015

In Q1 2015, China online shopping transaction value exceeded RMB757.41 billion (USD$123.51 million) with an increase of 45.2% from the same period of last year. According to the data of National Bureau of Statistics in Q1 2015, online shopping transaction value accounted for 10.7% of total retail consumer goods.

Influenced by the Chinese New Year period, online shopping market had slowed its growth while it was still being developed.

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Total transaction value of China B2C e-commerce market was RMB373.71 billion (USD$60.94 billion), representing 49.3% in online shopping market in Q1 2015. In addition, it increased by 6 percentage from the same period of last year which indicates B2C will surpass C2C becoming the main stream of China online shopping market.

In China B2C e-commerce market, Tmall represented 58.6% while Jingdong’s market share was over 20% in Q1 2015. In terms of B2C platforms with owned goods category, Jingdong accounted for 56.3%, followed by Vipshop and Suning.

Also read: Global E-commerce Sites That Provide Direct Shipping to China

By the end of Q3 2014, Dangdang’s traffic on mobile device had already surpassed traffic via desktop computers, accounting for over 60% of total traffic with an increase of 25% QoQ. At the same time, orders on mobile device accounted for over 40% of Dangdang’s total orders. It is estimated that by the end of 2014, orders on mobile device will account for 50%.

Mobile shopping showed great strength in Q2 2014. Total transaction value on mobile Alibaba accounted for 32.8%. During period of “6.18” promotion, orders on mobile Jingdong accounted for 25% and Vipshop accounted for 46%.

Dangdang believes that there are several reasons for its increase on traffic and orders on mobile device.

1. Part of Dangdang users transferred from desktop to mobile device.
2. New Dnagdang users add powerful strength.
3. Dangdang carried out various kinds of promotion.
4. Improvement on mobile device has been made to make it more competitive among China online shopping websites

Also read: Dangdang GMV Had An Increase of 81.6% YoY in Q2 2014  & 7 Charts on China Mobile Shopping App Market

Recently, homepages of Tmall, Jingdong, Dangdang and Vip.com are almost those ones related to “Fashion” in China.

These four popular online retail websites in China are now all promoting heavily the clothing and apparel category and associating their brand with “fashion”.

As Li Guoqing, Dangdang’s CEO, once claimed in an internal e-mail that Dangdang is going to become the website featured with fashion elements through clothes and apparel program. What’s more, Tmall and JD both have programs for fashionable websites building. Besides their common goals for clothing selling, these four websites have their own features.

Tmall

Consumers can buy custom made products that are specially made for Tmall. Tmall has recently attracted many international brands to open flagship stores, such as Burberry, Estee Lauder, ASOS, Muji, ZARA, etc. With experience of establishing these international brands in China online market, Tmall definitely has an advantage.

Dangdang

Dangdang also offers brands with heavy discounts within limited sales period though most of those brands are not well-known ones.

Dangdang’s total net revenues in the second quarter of 2014 were RMB1,960.8 million ($316.1 million), a 31.3% increase YoY.

Jingdong

JD.com has developed attractive promotion program for selected and high-quality international brands like Armani and Nautica; however, the selection of well known brands is quite limited; so are the inventories.

JD.com had approximately 38,000 merchants on its online marketplace as of June 30, 2014 and a total of 62,061 full-time employees as of July 31, 2014.

Vipshop (Vip.com)

Vip.com are always promoting its special discount on various brands and the prices are very competitive. And now, it is extending to cosmetics and home supplies with attractive discount.

Also read: Vipshop Active Customers and Total Orders More Than Doubled in Q2 2014

It matters to Chinese consumers that they get fast delivery. Tmall’s delivery depends on the logistic companies which it cooperates with while Dangdang and Jingdong have their own Logistics team which are controllable.

Besides, flexible refund policy is important for Chinese online users’ online shopping experience. Tmall has 7-day unconditional refund policy; and, so does Dangdang, which even provides a written promise.

China mobile shopping market total transactions reached RMB168.39 billion (US$27.3 billion) in the second quarter of 2014, representing 26.8% of total online shopping transactions in the same period in China, an increase of 24.6% compared with the first quarter.

China’s Top Mobile Retailers in Q2 2014

Taobao dominates mobile shopping market in China with over 84.2% market share by total transaction value, followed by Jingdong, VIP.com and mobile e-commerce operator MMB.cn.

Mobile Shopping to Continue Strong Growth in China

iResearch estimates China mobile shopping market is going to exceed RMB800 billion (US$129.7 billion) this year, 30% of total total online shopping transactions; over half of China’s online shopping transactions will be on mobile by 2016.

In 2013, China online shopping market total transactions reached RMB1892.49 billion (US$306.74 billion) and 14.5% was from mobile. 76.4% of total mobile retail GMV in China was from Alibaba (US$51 billion).

Also read: China’s Post-90s Favor Mobile Shopping

Jumei, a Chinese online cosmetics retailer, filed for IPO in the U.S. on April 12, 2014. Jumei planned to finance for USD 400 million under the ticker “JMEI” in NYSE or Nasdaq, its issuing price has not been revealed.

According to Jumei’s financial report, Jumei’s revenue reached USD 483 million in 2013 while the GMV in 2012 was USD 233.2 million. Jumei realized USD 8.104 million net profit in 2012, it increased to USD 25 million in 2013. Jumei’s GMV hit USD 816.6 million in 2013, ranking the first in China cosmetics retailers. Its active users grew to 10.536 million in 2013. It had 6.529 million repeat customers and 8.224 million new customers.

Jumei tried to compare itself with Vipshop, and its financial report seemed even better than Vipshop’s. For example, Jumei’s mobile terminal sales accounted for 49%, while Vipshop had 23% in mobile terminal. Jingdong’s mobile sales accounted for 18%, dangdang’s accounted for 10%.  Just like Vipshop, Jumei’s business model is also flash sale and special offer. As for repeating purchase rate, Jumei had 88.9% repeating purchase orders which was amazing and higher than Vipshop’s 73.8%. Compared with Vipshop, Jumei has been making net profit consecutively for 6 quarters.

Will Jumei become another successful stock like Vipshop?

Jumei’s excellent financial report could not cover up its two major problems.

First, the curse of “counterfeit cosmetics products” will affect the growing of online cosmetics retailers. In March 2013, the fight between Jumei and its competitor Lefeng by accusing each other selling counterfeit products jeopardized all cosmetics online retailers’ credit. The rumor actually came from the fact that international cosmetics brands all use offline channels and did not delegate online e-commerce enterprises their brands. Once consumers don’t trust online retailers, offline cosmetics brands would claim that they never delegate online retailers and assert that those online retailers sell counterfeit products. What’s worse, Chinese female consumers love international brands rather than cheap and good domestic brands.

Second, Jumei does not have internet giant’s back up. Without it, Jumei might be difficult to guarantee the traffic. Vertical e-commerce enterprises are being isolated when integrated e-commerce enterprises like Alibaba and Jingdong dominate China market. Vertical e-commerce websites are forced to join the platforms. Iconic events include dangdang opening Tmall store and SF Express opening Jingdong store.

Enfodesk published its 2013 Q3 China B2C Market Report recently, China B2C market reached 162.4 billion yuan (USD 26.52 billion) with 50% YoY increase.

According to China B2C independent sale market performance, top 3 enterprises market share added up to 54.4%, 2% higher than Q2 2013. It was mainly because big B2C enterprises encroached small B2C enterprises’ market shares, Jingdong led B2C independent market with 38.8% share. Suning ranked the second with 9.9%, followed by Amazon China with 5.8%.

Because of market promotion, Jingdong website’s traffic hit apex in the middle of August 2013, and it hit another apex in the beginning of September but it soon went down by the end of September. Yixun (51buy) traffic went up in Q3 2013 with a large part of traffic guided from Tencent. Dangdang’s traffic went up in July and September for its two promotion campaigns. Suning’s traffic went up in August because of its anniversary celebration.

Tmall, Jingdong and Dangdang ranked the top 3 B2C platforms active users. Tmall active users growth slowed down, while Jingdong and Dangdang’s active users kept growing steadily.

Dangdang remained leader in conversion rate, and its Q3 conversion rate grew a little bit. Amazon China’s conversion rate increased a little by optimizing pages. Yihaodian launched market promotion in July and drove a lot of traffic, but its conversion rate dropped.

In Q3 2013, B2C clothing market reached 49.09 billion yuan (USD 8.03 billion), with 78.7% YoY increase. Vipshop had a good market performance in Q3.

In Q3 2013, B2C 3C products market reached 57.22 billion yuan (USD 9.36 billion), 35.2% of total B2C market. It increased 63.9% compared to Q3 2012. The difference between Suning and Jingdong enlarged by 2%.

In Q3 2013, Maternal and Child products B2C market reached 9.06 billion yuan (USD 1.48 billion), with 160.3% YoY increase and 26.4% QoQ increase. Maternal and Child products B2C market was growing quickly and became the new key market to fight over.

In Q3 2013, B2C publication market reached 3.87 billion yuan (USD 633 million), with 34.4% YoY increase and 6.3% QoQ increase. Dangdang remained the leader in publication market with 39.1% market share, 2% higher than Q2 2013. Amazon China ranked the second with 23.7%, Jingdong ranked the third with 16.5%.

Because 3C products had relatively high unit price, so 3C products market had a high percentage on the whole. But 3C products profit was low. Therefore, by examining B2C platforms excluding 3C products could give us a more objective assessment of B2C platforms. Non-3C products included clothing, publication, cosmetics and skincare products, maternal and child products, during which clothing had a big market share.

According to Andy Yeung, an analyst in Oppenheimer, whose report on November 11 2013 showed that China B2C YoY increase rate was 50% in Q3, much lower than 82% growth rate in Q2 and 96% in Q1 2013.

Andy Yeung pointed out in the report that three Chinese B2C enterprises, which were Vipshop, dangdang and Lightinthebox, had good revenue growth rates in Q3. It would slow down in the coming quarters. The stock price of Vipshop had been growing 316.5% since the beginning of 2013.

Vipshop’s third quarter finance reported a total revenue of USD 383.7 million in Q3, 146.1% more than that of 2012. And the net profit reached USD 12 million in Q3 2013, while in last year, Vipshop suffered a USD 1.5 million net loss. Vipshop outperformed the market expectation.

Since the disappointing Q2 finance report launched in August 2013, Lightinthebox’s stock price dropped almost 50%.

CNIT just released its research on China B2C brand influence in July 2013. Jingdong ranked the first in China B2C brand influence scored 95.72, followed by Tmall and Amazon China.

Compared to June 2013, the ranking of Jingdong, Vipshop, Yihaodian, Lefeng and Vancl all went up. Vipshop jumped from the 10th to 4th.

In terms of user awareness of China’s online B2C brands, Jingdong topped with 187,597 users. Vipshop attracted 173,531 users attention, ranked the second. Tmall, Suning, 51buy and dangdang were close in user attention, all surpassed 80,000.

In online media coverage, Tmall had the biggest media coverage with 27.54% of total B2C brands media coverage. Jingdong came to the second with 20.98%. The other 8 B2C brands in the top 10 list each occupied 4%-10%.

According to CNIT, the unique visitor in July dropped a little compared to June 2013. This was partly because the end of June 18 Sales War. In July 2013, Tmall ranked the first with 60.36 million UV. Jingdong had 18.18 million UV, and Amazon China had 7.2 million UV in July.

Dangdang topped in the number of negative reports in July 2013, with 106 negative reports. It was concerned with dangdang free ebook sale confronted with against from press, fake sale and bad logistic service. Vipshop and Suning’s negative reports also surpassed 60, mainly about fake products and bad customer service.

All major B2C brands focused on Weibo advertising. In July 2013, Jingdong Weibo retweeted posts reached 176,336, ranked the first. Followed by Tmall with 163,125 posts. Except for Vancl, other B2C brands Weibo posts all surpassed 10,000 in July 2013.

Vipshop.com, which is not well known in China’s e-commerce field, got the public’s attention because its stock price shockingly soared 10 times more than last year. What’s the secret?

Vipshop achievement was very amazing, up to now, it had generated profits three quarters in a row. Other B2C players like JD.com and Dangdang are still struggling to break even and make a profit.

In some Vipshop executives’ view, the fastly rising stock price came from the investors who gradually recognized Vipshop’s value. In the past three quarters, the Non-Gaap net income was USD 640,000.

According to the Q2 finance report released on Aug 15 2013, VIPShop’s total revenue reached USD 351.3 million, with a 159.7% YoY increase. Its net income grew to USD 9 million, while last year the net loss was USD 5.8 million. Vipshop became China’s first profitable B2C e-commerce enterprise.

Jingdong former assistant president Liu Shuang said, Vipshop was really different from the other e-commerce companies. It focused on the leftover products. For some apparel brands, Tmall.com may contact the company’s e-commerce department or the marketing department, but Vipshop would contact the brand’s clearance department.

After seeing Vipshop’s success, many e-commerce companies plan to enter the flash market. Tmall, Dangdang, Jingdong, Yihaodian…Today, they all have flash sales business, trying to compete with the market leader Vipshop.