BRICS account for 47% of global online retail sales

The online retail sales of BRICS countries led by China and India surpassed $876 billion in 2016, a report by China's e-commerce giant Alibaba said on Thursday.

The report was released ahead of the BRICS summit in Xiamen next week by the Ali Research Institute which is affiliated to Alibaba.

The online retail sales of BRICS countries accounted for 47 per cent of the global total. The figure is expected to climb to 59 per cent by 2022 as the five countries have great potential in e-commerce cooperation, it said.

Last year, BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries had 1.46 billion internet users and 720 million online shoppers, the report said.

Of this China accounts for 731 million and India 432 million as of December last year.

Russian candy and cookies, Indian handicrafts and spices, Brazilian nuts and propolis and South African grapefruit and wine were best sellers on China's e-commerce platforms, the report said.

According to AliExpress, an e-commerce site for cross- border exports run by Alibaba, made-in-China goods like clothes, accessories, mobile phones and electronic products were most favoured by BRICS customers, state-run Xinhua news agency reported today.

"Increasing disposable income, wide use of the Internet and improved payment and logistics services have driven the sustained and rapid development of e-commerce in the five countries," said Ouyang Cheng from the Ali Research Institute.