China e-commerce market analysis: Forecasting and profiling internet user

Abstract

E-commerce has been increasing rapidly and will obviously be more popular in the future. The growth of internet is believed to have given an impact on e-commerce's growth in China because approximately thirty percent of Chinese alter to be active internet users. The trend is pointed out to the increase of e-commerce transaction value. This research aims to provide an insight to the Chinese e-commerce market by performing a forecast of internet users. Age, gender, and income, as part of demographic profiles, are selected since they are considered to positively influence the internet user's online activity. Furthermore, this research also provides an analysis of guidelines for companies that want to enter the China e-commerce market. For the purpose of this research, time series analysis using ARIMA model will be used as the research method. Overall, findings assert Chinese internet users seem to grow rapidly. Male users are still predicted to the dominate market although, surprisingly, the result shows that male internet users are to go down gradually by 2015. In addition, the result shows that internet users who have high income are increasing. Therefore, it is indicated that luxury products become potential products to be marketed. Considering the overall phenomenon, it is likely that China will still continue to be a prospective e-commerce market in the future.