E-Commerce in China: A Personal Perspective

摘要

I like to shop on the Internet and I've been doing it for years. During a recent month, for example, I purchased a portable washing machine, an electric shaver, a surge protector, a memory card and spare battery for my digital camera (also purchased online), an assortment of vitamins and herbs, a bed comforter cover, soft drinks, and a sweater drip-dryer. Given such avid online customers as myself, it is little wonder that the Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce estimates that U.S. retail e-commerce sales for the first quarter of 2005 were $19.8 billion, an increase of 6.4% from the fourth quarter of 2004. But not all of my most recent online purchases can count toward a future estimate of e-commerce sales in the U.S. The reason is that my wife purchased the bed comforter cover, soft drinks, and sweater drip-dryer from online merchants when we were in Shanghai.