The proportion of smartphones sold in China by online stores such as JD, Alibaba’s Tmall and Suning Yigou grew to 21% in the second quarter, up from 14% a year earlier, IDC's latest Mobile Phone Tracker shows.
In terms of unit growth, the number of smartphones sold through e-tailers has increased by 58% year-on-year (YoY) in the second quarter of 2015.
"With operators reducing their smartphone subsidy, there is greater opportunity in the open market for vendors, and e-tailers are a key channel that vendors are focusing on,” said Tay Xiaohan, senior market analyst with IDC Asia-Pacific's Client Devices team.
“e-Tailers in China often offer discounts or free gifts to consumers, and also tend to sell phones at a lower price as compared to the offline retail shops. They have also started offering more services in the recent years.”
IDC expects the share of e-tailers to grow over the next few years. Two key drivers of this growth are promotions and services (with all major players holding huge promotions at least three times a year, the rest are expected to follow), and services (including incentives such as monthly installments, trade in of old phones, insurance for mobile phones and free phone repair, among others).
"The share of e-tailers will continue to grow on a year-on-year basis, but it will not be at a fast rate, as growth will continue to come mainly from Tier 1 and 2 cities, whose share will eat into that of retail shops, and we are likely to see the smaller retail shops closing down in the coming years," said Tay.