A member of the city of Shanghai's Commerce Commission, Gu Jiahe, told the Pudong Times, on Feb 5, that the city's e-commerce turnover for 2015 saw a year-on-year growth of 21.4 percent, thanks to municipal government efforts, and concluded by pointing to three of its e-commerce characteristics:

One, business-to-business e-shops that are leading the whole country, guaranteeing industrial development, with the B2B model seeing good growth in iron and steel, non-ferrous metals, and the car industries. Last year, the online iron and steel turnover reached 447-billion yuan ($68-billion) giving its online companies influence across the country.

Two, the integration of online and offline companies, with an offline network being an advantage for Shanghai, while traditional offline enterprises eagerly go online, for example, large supermarket chains.

Three, e-commerce is playing a greater role in the service sector, with online enterprises getting into tourism, catering, and entertainment, while emphasizing innovation, and at the same time, many online enterprises, such as Amazon, Carrefour, Alipay, and S.F Express Group, have chosen Shanghai for their e-HQ.