A new survey shows Internet shopping is increasing thanks to improvements of online payment systems and delivery services. The China Internet Network Information Centre survey reveals 17.9 per cent of consumers shop online often.

Among those who have never purchased online, 63.7 per cent said they will convert to online shopping in the future, which, says the report, means greater market potential exists.

Among those quizzed who have shopped at least once online, more than 90 per cent said they will continue to use the new purchasing mode.

Online business firms are already staging big promotions to lure more consumers following the upgrade of Internet payment system in recent years.

About 41.8 per cent of all web shopping payments are handled over the Internet, the survey shows.

And 43.2 per cent of online shopping payments are handled via money remittance personnel and 34.7 per cent are completed in person, the survey shows.

"Thanks to state-of-the-art encryption techniques, the safety of online payment has improved greatly," said Zhou Yonglin, an official with the E-bank Department of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

"We have never found a credit card password revealing case among online payments so far," he added.

"Online payment provides a more convenient way for consumers who don't carry cash ."

Cheaper prices are packing the cyperspace shopping malls.

Beijing resident Ding Xin in her late 20s, bought a bottle of perfume online last month.

"I often browse the websites of online shops because the goods have more attractive prices," she said.

However, the frequency of online shopping remains incomparable with traditional trips to the stores.

Despite the report's optimism, a shortage in types of online commodities, poor logistics and inefficient website management are just some of the problems which continue to hinder the development of online shopping.

"How to adopt new strategies to expand the variety of available products, attract more consumers and improve the online business volume are now the major challenges facing online shopping websites," said Wang Juntao, president of 6688.com, a Beijing-based online business enterprise.

"Banks charge us a higher handling fee for transactions compared with our offline counterparts. This is still a headache for online business development," Wang said.

However, news that Amazon.com had acquired Joyo, the largest online retailer in China, at the cost of 622.5 million yuan (US$75 million) in late August, added more fuel to the online business fever.

China has an estimated 90 million-plus Internet surfers and the number is expanding rapidly. Such figures, give online business enterprises a good reason to choose a proper business scope and dig out the potential of loyal consumers, Wang said.

The survey was carried out among 2,627 people randomly selected from families and schools in 20 cities across the country during September.

(China Daily November 17, 2004)