One of the first questions an importer asks is where to find and buy cost-effective products in China. This article answers it, and gives an introduction to China e-commerce, which are the most developed in the world and the starting point for most sourcing searches whether or not they end there.
China e-commerce divides into three types. B2C, business to consumer, is where brands and retailers sell directly to shoppers: Tmall, JD.com, Pinduoduo, and the shopping functions of Douyin and Kuaishou. B2B, business to business, is where factories and trading companies sell to other businesses: Alibaba.com for international buyers and 1688.com for the domestic market. C2C, consumer to consumer, is where individuals and small sellers trade with each other, which in China means Taobao. For an importer, the B2B platforms are where the work happens, but the B2C platforms are where you learn what Chinese factories are actually making and at what price.
China E-Commerce: Market Outlook
China e-commerce is the largest online retail market in the world by a wide margin. Online retail sales reached 15.97 trillion yuan in 2025, up 8.6% on the year, of which 13.09 trillion yuan was physical goods, equal to 26.1% of China’s total retail sales of 50.12 trillion yuan (National Bureau of Statistics, January 2026). Around a third of all retail sales in China now happen online when services are included, against roughly 16% in the United States, and China accounts for close to half of global e-commerce sales.
China e-commerce is mobile. In Western countries mobile commerce is a large share of online sales; in China it is nearly all of it, with the overwhelming majority of purchases made through apps, mini-programs inside WeChat, and live-streaming sales. Live-streaming commerce, where a host sells products to a live audience, went from a novelty in 2018 to a channel worth several trillion yuan a year, and it has changed how Chinese factories think about selling: many now sell direct to consumers through their own streams as well as through wholesale.
Mobile commerce is the default in China, not an alternative.
Current China E-Commerce Platforms
Most Westerners know Alibaba and AliExpress, but not that they are two products of the Alibaba Group, which runs a family of platforms each aimed at a different buyer. That structure is what gives the group its share of the market.
Alibaba.com is the international B2B platform: Chinese factories and trading companies listing products for foreign business buyers, with request-for-quotation tools that let a buyer post a requirement and receive competing offers. 1688.com is its domestic equivalent, in Chinese, where the same suppliers list for the Chinese trade at lower prices; it is increasingly used by foreign buyers with Chinese-speaking help. AliExpress sells the same kinds of products in single units or small lots to consumers abroad, which makes it a cheap way to sample a product category before approaching a factory. Taobao is the C2C and small-merchant marketplace, the largest in China, and Tmall is the B2C platform for established brands, comparable to Amazon.
Alibaba’s dominance of China e-commerce has eroded. JD.com built the second-largest B2C platform on its own logistics network and a reputation for authentic goods. Pinduoduo grew from group-buying in smaller cities to become one of the three largest platforms and the parent of Temu, which since 2022 has taken the direct-from-China model to consumers in the West at scale.
Douyin, the Chinese TikTok, and Kuaishou turned short video and live-streaming into major retail channels; Douyin’s e-commerce sales now rival the traditional platforms. DHgate and Made-in-China.com serve small-scale importers with B2B listings, and Global Sources remains a curated alternative for buyers who want vetted suppliers.
Alibaba’s 2014 New York listing was the moment China’s e-commerce scale became visible to the West.
For a large-scale importer, Alibaba.com is still the most useful starting point, because it has the widest supplier coverage and the best tools for structured enquiry. But it is a directory, not a vetting service, and the suppliers listed range from the factories behind global brands to trading companies with no factory at all. Knowing which is which is the work.
Dealing with Factories in China E-Commerce
The companies you meet on China e-commerce platforms are Chinese factories, or more often trading companies representing factories. The rules from other articles on this site apply: specifications and negotiations should be clear and leave no room for ambiguity, and the first communication sets the tone for the relationship.
Factories run their online listings through sales teams. Those teams manage enquiries all day and are good at responding, but they are salespeople, not engineers, and they will often give the impression of product knowledge they do not have. Playing along with that gets you labelled as an enquirer with no real intention to order.
The better approach is to know exactly what you want before you write, ask precise technical questions, and either place a small trial order or ask to be referred to someone technical. A clear, specific enquiry from a buyer who evidently understands the product gets attention; a vague one does not. Presenting yourself as larger than you are can also get attention, as long as you follow through.
One thing has changed since the early years of these platforms. Chinese factories no longer treat China e-commerce as a side channel. For many, especially in consumer goods, direct online sales at home and abroad are now the main business, and a foreign wholesale buyer is one customer among several kinds. That makes factories more professional to deal with and, sometimes, less interested in small orders.
Conclusion
China e-commerce marketplaces are the largest and most developed anywhere, and they are where most product searches begin. They are excellent for finding what exists and what it costs, and for placing small trial orders. They are less good at telling you who you are dealing with, which is why supplier verification, sampling, and inspection remain necessary steps after the search. Knowing the basics, Incoterms, payment terms, and how to write a specification, and approaching the platforms with a clear requirement, is enough to start. If you would rather have the search, verification, and first order handled for you, that is what our product sourcing service does.
