(ECNS) -- American lobsters, New Zealand fruits, Australian steaks, South Korean cosmetics and Russian crabs. A simple click of the mouse allows Chinese Internet users to buy almost anything in the world thanks to the rapid growth of cross-border e-commerce, the Guangzhou Daily reports.
Purchasing overseas products online has become an increasingly popular way to prepare for the Spring Festival, China's Lunar New Year, in the southern city of Guangzhou.
Many online shoppers interviewed by the newspaper said they can buy high-quality products at much lower prices than in supermarkets.
Online retail sales amounted to 3.88 trillion yuan ($589 billion) nationally, up 33.3 percent in 2015, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
The rapid e-commerce growth is underpinned by China's ever-expanding population of online shoppers. By December 2015, over 60 percent of the country's 688 million Internet users, approximately 413 million, made purchases on the Internet, according to data released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).
Internet users in rural areas reached 195 million, at a growth rate doubling the urban expansion. E-commerce sites like Alibaba, JD.com and Suning.com all have intensified efforts to attract rural online consumers, the CNNIC said.
A recent study by Tmall Global, the international division of Taobao Tmall, and China Business News shows that cross-border e-commerce will keep growing at a high speed in the next three to five years.
China will optimize customs clearance processes, give tax reductions and exemptions, and encourage cross-border electronic payments to boost development of cross-border e-commerce, the State Council, China's cabinet, said last June.
