Online shopping records beaten as new era beckons

Staff members work at the headquaters of Taobao in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province, Nov. 11, 2013.[Photo / Xinhua]

According to Ma, about 9 million online shops have set up business on their platforms. This has led to thousands of jobs as well as a boost for logistics and express delivery companies.

In late October, China's Cabinet relaxed company registration requirements to ease market access and encourage social investment, giving support to small businesses like those on Alibaba's e-commerce platforms.

Premier Li expressed support for the country's burgeoning private enterprises and advocated reforms for a consumption-driven new economy during a conference, which Ma was invited to late last month.

"It is not only that the government trusts private entrepreneurs, it also relies on them," Li said.

However, it is not only down to trust.

The thriving e-commerce business is made possible by more Internet finance innovations such as third party payment platforms and small loans.

Thanks to increased investment borrowed from renrendai.com, a peer-to-peer online lending platform, Yang Zhiming, a razor retailer on Taobao.com, doubled his sales on Monday.

Yang is one of the thousands of small business owners who has benefited from Internet-based micro finance. They had been turned away by major banks due to small scale and insufficient credit record.

More private enterprises are making their foray into the once heavily regulated financial sector, offering small and medium enterprises more financing choices.

"The Internet finance boom forced China's state-owned finance giants to rethink their development strategy, putting more focus on small businesses and enhancing the country's credit system construction," said Yang Tao, a senior finance researcher with Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Xu Yun said she is looking forward to receiving her products, but is worried how long they will take to arrive and whether they will be in tact.

Last year, an avalanche of deals and parcels almost paralyzed the payment system and logistics, while customer complaints challenged the consumer protection legal system.

"China's logistics sector is small in scale and too fragmented, " said He Dengcai, deputy director of China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.

He encouraged more enterprises to outsource their logistics demands to help reduce costs and improve services.

Online payment services are also reported to falter when there are high numbers of transactions. "More payment channels and a safer purchasing system should be developed to ease online shopping," said Yang Tao.

That may be changing.

Premier Li has said the government will continue to improve public service infrastructures and systems to facilitate market-oriented reform.

"The process of reform may be gradual, but it is determined," he said.