Market share of import B2C e-commerce platforms in China 2023

The prevalence of online shopping and cross-border logistics boosted the development of cross-border e-commerce imports in China. Many cross-border online marketplaces were built up in recent years providing consumers with a one-stop-shop for products from all over the world. In 2023, the Alibaba-owned cross-border shopping platform Tmall Global possessed nearly 38 percent of the entire import cross-border B2C e-commerce retailers. 

Concerns about counterfeits

Chinese consumers chose to shop on overseas online shopping platforms to avoid counterfeits. However, the reality is that more than forty percent of the overseas consumers have bought counterfeits online, mostly fake toiletries and beauty products. Generally, Chinese cross-border online shoppers trusted cross-border shopping channels within horizontal e-commerce platforms more, compared to e-retailers specializing in overseas products.

The acquisition of Kaola

In September 2019, the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba announced its acquisition of Kaola.com, the second-largest cross-border e-commerce platform in China. The purchase helped Alibaba to establish its dominance in the cross-border e-commerce sector. As of 2021, Alibaba-owned overseas shopping e-commerce platforms occupied a total of more than 60 percent of China’s cross-border import online retail market.