Bain & Company predicts that China will become the global leader in terms of online spending this year, ahead of the United States. The consultancy estimates that online sales soared by 71 percent per year on average between 2009 and 2012, compared with 13 percent in the U.S. market. This is partly due to the fact that nearly half of Chinese consumers now have access to the internet, of which 80 percent have a smartphone or tablet. In 2012, online spending by Chinese consumers reached the equivalent of $212.4 billion, compared with $228.7 billion in the U.S. By 2015, Bain predicts that online sales will reach 3,300 billion yuan renminbi (€4.08bn-$5.39bn). Meanwhile, Taobao, one of the leading online shopping centers in China, estimates that online sales could amount to half of the household consumption in China in ten years' time, up from just 6 percent this year.

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