China has long been considered the most attractive new market for Western and Asian retailers and we also know that this enthusiasm has translated into online sales. But the next big wave in Chinese retail growth will come from purchases made on smartphones, so called m-commerce.

Already China’s ecommerce market is expected to generate $274.5 billion USD in spending in 2014, but that figure could grow with new revenues generated from mobile device purchases The best estimates predict that $51.62 billion USD will be spent via mobile commerce this year. That’s nearly double the m-commerce tally in 2013.

Smartphones account for over 80% of China’s new phone sales which is a huge number. Therefore it’s understandable that the m-commerce sector will grow faster than the e-commerce industry itself which means it’s time for all e-commerce companies to pay a lot more attention to their phone and tablet apps.

A recent read of available statistics suggests that mobile shopping spending will grow a whopping 91.1% from 2013 to 2014. Already m-commerce in China is more readily accepted than in the US. 69% of Chinese smartphone users have made a purchase on their device compared to just 46% of US consumers.  The buyers here are young as 50% of China’s mobile shoppers are between age 24 and 30 with 52% on all m-commerce purchases being made by males.

Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall sites still dominate the sector accounting for 76.1 % of spending from mobile devices. Of particular note for Apple, 4 out of 5 purchases made were on iPhones or iPads proving Chinese consumers loves their IOS devices.