What Are Chinese Buying From Overseas?

Driven by a voracious appetite for foreign products and rising affordability, more and more Chinese consumers are buying from overseas retailers.

by Azoya

Driven by a voracious appetite for foreign products and rising affordability, more and more Chinese consumers are buying from overseas retailers. The act of buying goods from online overseas website is called Haitao. Chinese Haitao consumers bear quite different characteristics both from foreign consumers and from domestic shoppers.

This infographic from Alibaba shows the online purchasing habits of 5,600 consumers who shop on Alibaba's cross-border platform. Chinese Haitao consumers are able to make purchases through a network of logistics and marketplace providers who facilitate direct shipping from global brands and eCommerce websites. Although these items typically take longer to reach consumers, the total market for cross-border eCommerce is expected to keep booming, with Chinese consumers opting to purchase more predictable items through these channels such as beauty (31%) and baby care (17%) products.