Report: 89% of Chinese Consumers Buy Home Appliances Online, Unlike US Consumers

China's "August 15" sales are simllar to "Black Friday" sales in the US, when prices for home appliances are slashed to rock-bottom. Unlike Chinese consumers, Americans would rather buy their home appliances offline. On "Black Friday," which is the day after Thanksgiving and falls in November, consumers across the US flock to offline stores to grab everything from discounted flat-panel TV sets to half-price washing machines and refrigerators and other electric appliances. People begin to queue up late at night at big-name stores such as Macy's, Target, and Walmart, to be the first to get their hands on unbeatable deals. This event has lasted for over 70 years in the US.

According to ShopperTrak, an American analytics company, in 2015, the trading volume on "Black Friday" stood at $13.2 billion, up by 13.4% year-on-year. Their data also shows that on that day, American retail stores saw a sales volume of $10.4 billion. By comparison, the Adobe Marketing Cloud (AMC) by Adobe surveyed more than 4,500 e-commerce websites to show that Americans spent only approximately $2.72 billion on online "Black Friday" sales.

While American consumers rush to offline stores on "Black Friday", Chinese consumers prefer to do their "August 15" shopping online at jd.com. China has a large population, which offers a great demographic dividend and drives large consumption demand. E-commerce is cost-efficient which, when combined with a well-developed logistics system, not only allows bulky goods like home appliances to be delivered quickly but also effectively reduces the costs of these channels. Therefore, the online purchase of home appliances is cheaper in China and this partly accounts for the preference for online purchases.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160725/392474
Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160725/392475

SOURCE jd.com