Taiwan leads the world for eCommerce sales, according to local online trader Ruten Auction, which plans to provide a cross-border transaction service this year.
It also aims to expand into the greater China market with the next 10 years as a world-class micro eCommerce platform.
Announcing its successful achievement of its goal of 100 million listings yesterday, Ruten Auction says these increased by 30 million last year, while its gross merchandise value (total sales for merchandise or services) surpassed NT$143 billion (US$4 billion). It has 8 million buyers and 1 million sellers and 1 billion page views a month.
Chairman Hung-Tze Jan says online shopping in Taiwan accounts for 11 per cent of total retail sales – a huge share when compared to markets like Singapore (1 per cent), Thailand (0.2 per cent) and Indonesia and Vietnam (both 0.1 per cent). He says Taiwan has “huge momentum” in the C2C market.
“With 100 million merchandise selections and 1 million sellers Taiwan is the country of eCommerce,” says Hung-Tze Jan.
With 4.34 live listings for each person in Taiwan on a population basis, the island state has the highest per capita listings in the world.
“If we divide Ruten members by the Taiwan population, the penetration rate is about 38 per cent, which means every 2.6 of Taiwanese is a member,” says COO Vicky Tseng.
Ruten reached its 100 million listings milestone at the end of last year, and since then listings have grown more than 100 times, 80 per cent of which are new. Nearly 95 per cent of items are fixed in price.
As well as integrating its top four convenience stores with Chunghwa post office logistics services, the company has introduced a third-party payment service, PChomePay. Ruten believes this has helped boost daily order placements.
Bricks-and-mortar stores are also choosing Ruten as their first online sales channel, and the company plans to accept overseas buyers and sellers in the future.
Among Ruten’s 100 million listings, books and media account for 20 per cent, followed by apparel and accessories (18 per cent) and home audio (14 per cent). For delivery, Ruten buyers prefer store pick-and-pay and home delivery.
Statistics for the past year show that buyers fall into six categories: college students (37 per cent), collectors (31 per cent), fashionistas (28 per cent), computer, communication and consumer electronics enthusiasts (12 per cent), families (11 per cent) and auto fans (10 per cent).
