A recent study has reported that the Chinese retail market will take the American retail market’s place for largest in the world this year. In 2019, retail sales are expected to top $5.6 trillion in China, compared to $5.5 trillion in the US. To seal the deal, the Chinese retail market is expected to grow 7.5%, while its American counterpart is expected to grow 3.3%. Predictions point to this trend continuing as China’s retail market is expected to outpace America’s through 2022.
While annual per-capita spending in China is only a quarter of America’s, the country’s population and growth in demand which built up in the early 2000s has helped build a stronger consumer economy. The world’s second largest economy is also still going through rapid urbanization. People have been moving from the countryside into the cities by the tens of millions in recent decades. This has led to new jobs and greater wealth, which have fostered a huge new middle class.
This year alone, China is expected to account for 55.8% of the world’s online retail sales.
