Running an e-store on Taobao and other similar net platforms costs nothing and therefore attracts many students and unemployed workers. Wang Jing, an experienced seller on Taobao, moonlighted as an e-shop trader selling domestic cosmetic products while she was in college. After graduating, she decided to work as a full-time e-shop seller and has now hired several staff members to help deal with her orders and deliveries.

Figures provided by Taobao show that the number of new e-stores opening per month is almost 200,000, equal to roughly 5,000 to 6,000 each day.

In addition, online shopping has reversed the traditional view of shopping as a female dominated activity. Figures co-published by iResearch Group and Taobao indicate that 55 percent of e-store buyers are male. Moreover, male buyers mainly concentrate on digital products and their expenditure in this area greatly exceeds that of female buyers. "Male customers, who dislike window shopping, find that the Internet can provide them with a method of shopping which suits them better," says Hu Ming. According to his experience, "Generally speaking, male buyers are more generous with their money and are seldom picky with goods."

Furthermore, during financial crisis, when the popularity of traditional shopping methods takes a turn for the worse, the perfect opportunity exists for e-shops to earn a great deal of money. The man in charge of Dangdang believes that e-stores targeting domestic demand are likely to be more successful during hard times. A survey conducted by iResearch Group also revealed that the financial slump has not caused any negative impacts on e-store businesses yet. People appear to have an untiring enthusiasm for e-store shopping as 79 percent of Internet users continue to shop online.

Security and Service Come First

"Every Internet buyer may come across fake commodities or items which do not match their online description," remarks Xu Xiaoping. With their integrated operation of procurement, storage, sale and delivery, large-scale B2C net platforms like Joyo Amazon and Dangdang can exercise better control on the quality and authenticity of their goods. However, with C2C net platforms, the quality of the goods and service depends largely on the honesty and good will of individual sellers.

After talking to colleagues and friends, Xu Xiaoping found that when buyers place orders on B2C net platforms, they do so to ensure they will receive genuine products and will happily accept the relatively high price for them. In addition, many bargain hunters that use C2C net platforms are aware that some of the products on offer are counterfeit.

Despite this knowledge, there are still complaints when some buyers find that the products they have bought do not match their online descriptions. In 2008, the 3.15 Consumable Digital Products Website for Complaints, sponsored by the China Electronic Chamber of Commerce, received over 106,608 complaints. Among those, 9,172 cases were related to online shopping, including 1,700 cases against Taobao. Among the different reasons for complaint, sales swindles made up 48.14 percent, exaggerated advertising made up 23.85 percent and the remaining 20.6 percent was about fake commodities.

At present, Taobao conducts both B2C and C2C trade, having expanded from providing purely C2C trade. Concerning the reason for introducing B2C business, Taobao states, "We don't intend to take the bread out of our e-store sellers' mouths, but only to meet demand. In China, honor and credibility are vital in ensuring smooth progress of e-store business." In fact, most new buyers prefer to perform their first online shopping purchase through a B2C net platform.