On May 9, China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOC) announced that China’s online retail sales amounted to RMB 2.24 trillion ($0.33 trillion) in the first quarter of the current year, up 15.3 percent year on year, including online retail sales of physical commodities worth RMB 1.78 trillion ($0.26 trillion), up 21.0 percent year on year.
According to the data monitored by the MOC, cross-border e-commerce retail imports increased by 40.0 percent year on year. In particular, Japan, the US and South Korea were the top 3 among all sources of imports, accounting for 18.0 percent, 13.3 percent and 11.6 percent of all retail e-commerce imports, respectively.
The MOC said that it expects online retail sales will maintain their rapid growth this year.