Chinese Consumers Flock To US eCom

Chinese consumers are increasingly moving to embrace shopping across United States brands this holiday season, as the number of shoppers and the amount they buy is up by multiples.

Alipay, which is owned and operated by Ant Financial Group, found in a survey conducted between Nov. 17 and Nov. 30 that total sales from Chinese consumers buying U.S. products, using Alipay ePass, a cross-border solution, grew by 15 times over the same period last year. The number of actual consumers jumped seven times over the same measured span.

Boasting 400 million registered users, the Alipay ePass program debuted in September of last year and allows U.S. brands to sell directly to Chinese consumers, who in turn pay with local currencies. The pricing is the same in both countries. The Alipay technology itself takes care of shipping and clearing functions. The president of Alipay’s U.S. business, Jingming Li, said in a statement that “among the savviest shoppers in the world, Chinese consumers are continuously seeking high quality U.S. products and Western merchandise that they can’t find in China. With better logistics and localized payment options now available to make cross-border purchases, we expect this tremendous growth of Chinese consumers to continue throughout the holiday season, particularly as U.S. eCommerce retailers provide more discounts and promotions.”

The Alipay data showed that among demographic information and trends, millennials became the largest group of consumers, with a jump ahead of the middle class in terms of cross-border purchases. The shopping group of those born after the 1990s grew by threefold, while those born in the 1980s followed. Females made up 70 percent of shoppers. The highest trafficked category were fashion, beauty, baby products and wellness, combining to represent 75 percent of all products bought. Regionally speaking, the highest rates of consumption took place in Shanghai and Beijing.

[bctt tweet=”The Alipay data showed millennials became the largest group of consumers.”]