A professional team comprising 50 specialists has been set up by Taobao to supervise and deal with the issue of fake commodities. Moreover, several policies have been introduced and are continuously implemented, such as "Advance Compensation," the "Customer Guarantee Scheme" and the "Buyers Complain and Sellers Disprove" system. Once a complaint put forward by a brand owner or customer has been verified, Taobao immediately asks the seller in question to remove the relevant products from their e-store, or may even close the shop completely if it is a very serious case. In addition, identity cards must be provided for authentication if one plans to run an e-store on Taobao. If a seller is caught selling fake or shoddy commodities, he or she will be banned for three to five years, or maybe even for life in serious cases. Ebay also has the same policy.

For B2C net platforms, which are seldom bothered by fake commodity troubles, service quality is important for them to maintain their competitive edge. Packaging, delivery speed and handling of returns are major factors that affect customers' loyalty. "Joyo Amazon used to be popular with us due to its clear web layout and speedy delivery, but recently the quality of service has barely been acceptable," says Xu Xiaoping. If the quality and price of a product is the same in two different e-stores, customers will no doubt choose the store with better service.

Dangdang and Joyo Amazon both specialize in books and commodities, so competition between the two is very intense. In 2009, Dangdang plans to expand its cash-on-delivery business to 450 cities. Joyo Amazon currently operates a similar business in 600 cities and this will likely expand to 700 within the year.

The expansion of e-stores presents attractive prospects to potential investors. According to iResearch Group, during the current financial slump, e-store business will boom in a manner similar to its last successful leap during the 2003 SARS period.