According to the Survey Report on Online Shopping in China 2008 released by China Internet Network Information Center, the total amount of online shopping in 19 big cities in China reached CNY16.2 billion in the first half of 2008.

This survey covered the 19 major cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Wuhan and the survey focuses were the 2,600 netizens who had online shopping experiences in the first half of 2008.

Statistics show that 27.9% out of the total netizens in the 19 cities have bought products online in the first half of 2008. More than 40% of these online buyers do online shopping at least once a month. Shanghai topped this index with 45.2%, followed by Beijing and Guangzhou. For per capita consumption in online shopping, Shanghai was still tops with CNY1,107.

From the perspective of gender proportion, the total amount of online shopping by males was CNY 8.4 billion; and the amount of online shopping by females was slightly lower than that of males, reaching CNY7.8 billion.

The leading position of Alibaba's online auction website Taobao.com is quite stable in online shopping. Its online shopping penetration has reached 81.5%, followed by Dangdang.com and Joyo.com with 16.6% and 13.6%, respectively.

About 71.3% of the netizens use electronic payment in their online shopping, of which 76.2% were completed through Alipay. About 20% of the buyers said they have unhappy experiences in online shopping and the quality of products and the logistical problems were the main causes. They complain about the inconsistencies between the pictures and the actual products and the delayed delivery.