According to the research data analyzed and published by ComprarAcciones.com, August 2020 saw the first monthly retail growth since the start of the year. Retail sales in the month rose by 0.5% year-on-year (YoY).
Moreover, based on a report from Trading Economics, January and February had the highest drops of -20.5% each. Between January and August, retail trade in the country declined by -8.6%.
Online Retail Sales Increase by 9.5% YoY with Food Sales Leading at 35.4%
During the month of August, the cosmetics category grew by 19% compared to 9.2% in July. Jewelry grew by 15.3% vs. 7.5%, office supplies increased by 9.4% vs. 0.5% and telecoms rose by 25.1% vs. 11%. Building materials plummeted by -2.9% vs. 2.5% while furniture dropped -4.2% vs. -3.9%.
Meanwhile, online sales of physical goods increased by 15.8% between January and August. During the same period, overall online sales increased by 9.5% YoY to $1.032 trillion. Food sales had the highest growth of 35.4% during the period.
According to data from Statista, China was the second largest retail market globally with 21% of the market share in 2019. The US has been in the lead for almost a century, but in 2020, China could turn the tables. According to eMarketer, the Chinese retail market will decline by -4% in 2020 to reach $5.072 trillion. But the US will take a bigger hit to reach $4.894 trillion.
eMarketer research also reveals that Alibaba, JD.com and Pinduoduo will have a market share of 83.6% in 2020 from 80.3% in 2019. The battle for supremacy between these top three Chinese eCommerce sites is part of the reason for the rapid growth of retail trade in China. Based on another study published by Statista, revenue from eCommerce in China is set to grow a massive by 29.4% in 2020.
