B2B eCommerce Is Shaping China’s Payments Landscape

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Consumer payments technology is under a spotlight. But the B2B eCommerce arena is often viewed as the unsung hero of innovation. Now, there are some stats to back that claim up — at least in China.

According to reports on Tuesday (Dec. 22), B2B eCommerce is a major driver behind online and electronic payments development in China. The conclusion was reached by iResearch, which released a new study to examine the nation’s eCommerce industry.

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The data revealed that a significant increase in B2B eCommerce gross merchant volume (GMV) in the year’s second quarter coincided with a significant increase in third-party online payment gross merchant volume.

That third-party online payment GMV hit 2.81 trillion yuan in the quarter (about $430 billion), representing a growth rate of 15.7 percent quarter over quarter, reports said. While online shopping accounted for a quarter of online payments in the quarter, B2B eCommerce contributed to 6 percent of the volume.

The statistics, however, pointed to a small decline in B2B eCommerce GMV due to a decline in import/export value for China in the first half of 2015, the statistics revealed.

The year’s first quarter also saw a slight decline in B2B eCommerce. China Internet Watch released figures earlier in 2015 that found a 1.6 percent decline in the quarterly value of B2B online purchases compared to the quarter before. Analysts noted that, overall, the B2B eCommerce sector remains on a steadily increasing track.

Last year, data suggested that China’s eCommerce industry reached a valuation of nearly $2 trillion for 2014.