Dive Brief:

• Mobile made up almost two thirds of all e-commerce sales in China in the fourth quarter of 2015, according to a report from Analysys International Enfodesk. 
• The shift to mobile occurred rapidly in China, with only 9.0% of e-commerce sales coming from mobile as recently as the first quarter of 2013.
• Mobile sales in China will grow by more than 30% each year through 2019 to reach almost one-quarter of all retail sales, eMarketer projects. 

Dive Insight:

E-commerce has shifted rapidly toward mobile in China in the last three years, based on figures from Analysys International Enfodesk. Compared to desktop and laptop computers, mobile sales went from less than 10% of all e-commerce sales at the beginning of 2013 to 64.7% in the final quarter of 2015. Full-year 2015 results put mobile sales at just under half (49.7%) of all e-commerce sales in China for 2015, eMarketer estimates.

Mobile sales in China will grow 51.4% this year to reach $506 million, according to eMarketer projections, and continued double-digit growth will make the mobile commerce market worth more than $1.5 trillion by 2019—or about 24% of all retail sales in the country. With smartphones putting computers into the hands of one-sixth of the world’s population, marketers should look to mobile first when targeting new consumers in China. 

By comparison, just 29.7% of e-commerce purchases were made via mobile in 2015 in the United States, where desktop and laptop computers were entrenched well ahead of the omnichannel boom. According to a report released by Forrester Research in Oct. 2015, U.S. mobile transactions will top $142 billion in 2016: The report also indicated that while one third of online retail traffic came from mobile, it still only accounted for 11% of e-commerce sales.