According to an American shopping website, onenow.com, 15,000 Chinese consumers have made purchases at an average of US$150 per deal since it opened in China.

COACH handbags discounted at 40 percent, Polo T-shirts at 55 percent, LV knitted shirts at 50 percent… prices like these on foreign shopping websites are attracting large numbers of Chinese consumers.

An upsurge of online shopping has followed the RMB's appreciation in value against the US dollar. Most import agents are individual businessmen, reselling in China at a profit, but consumers can buy goods directly online at a 20 percent discount compared to prices offered by importers.

There are specialty stores on onenow.com such as COACH, Polo, and LV, offering discounts ranging from 20 to 55 percent. An LV handbag is priced at about 2300 yuan after discount, plus 5 percent service charge and about 200 yuan in shipping fees - the total price is less than 3,000 yuan, while the same style would cost 3500 yuan bought through an importer. A Polo jacket is priced at US$150, with add-on fees around 1,400 yuan, 200 yuan cheaper than import price and about one third to a half of the price in the domestic market.

As a result of a partnership between onenow.com and Visa, the goods can be delivered to customers via global DHL within 10 days.

For more information, please read the entire article in Chinese:

http://www.bbtnews.com.cn/economy/channel/political63093.shtml

(China.org.cn by Jessica Zhang, January 14, 2009)