Published: 2:06pm, 16 Dec, 2015 Updated: 2:54pm, 20 Jul, 2018
As China 's 300 m members of the middle class drive domestic consumption with their increasing use of smart mobile devices , plans for the expansion of China 's e - commerce industry are being buoyed by the recent successes of the China group . By creating a " digital access road " China aims to boost " consumption power " in China even further and continue to drive the economy forward , so that it will account for 50 % of the global e - commerce retail market by 2018 . China 's potential online successes may also help the Asia - Pacific region ’s total sales to reach projections of $ 1.892tn . Indeed , eMarketer has suggested that e - commerce in China is forecast to account for 28.6 % of total retail sales in the country by 2018 , up from an estimated 15.9 % for 2015 .