This report explains how cross-border online retail has become a significant segment within total online retail, as well as how this is creating new opportunities for sectors that have yet to make significant growth in online retailing, and particularly for more specialist niche products and brands. The report also explores how consumers have, or have not, embraced cross-border online retail, what their attitudes to buying foreign goods are, as well as what the key influences are on how and why they shop for foreign products online. This report also explains what the key market drivers are, and how companies are adapting their strategies in order to take best advantage of the rapidly changing market dynamics.

For the purpose of this report, ‘Haitao’ means buying imported products from online shopping websites, including both domestic and overseas shopping websites. It excludes purchasing imported products from domestic or foreign physical stores, or from duty-free channels while travelling, and also excludes ‘daigou’ (literally translated as ‘representative buying’) purchases, these being purchases made by Chinese nationals living or visiting overseas to send back to China, either for consumption by friends or relatives or to sell on.