One of the Julong shop owners displays his wears for the coming traders (PHOTO BY CHRISTIAN O'BRIEN)

Rosy future

Li, a 29 year-old native of Luoyang, Henan Province, moved to Beijing four years ago. Having already spent much of his working life in the clothing business, he has already built a network of hundreds of young traders who depend on each other for internal trading business.

"Taobao is now the new fashion in this country, every young person regularly logs on Taobao, it is the future. People can buy anything they want with the lowest price but highest quality," he added, emphasizing the importance that it has in today's China.

After all the goods were collected from the markets, traders then embarked on their last journey to their warehouse. We sensed an open level of trust amongst the young traders as each of them took turns to look out for each other's merchandise. 

The traders have now set their eyes on expanding their business worldwide. Knowing that China is the forerunner of the import and export trade and its economy becoming the talk of the globe, when asked about any advice that they could give to Africa's young entrepreneurs, they stated in unison, "If you want to start a business, then be sure to come to China."

Online Shopping Boom

 > Online shopping has become one of the fastest growing industries in China. Internet users have begun using Taobao and Alibaba's Pay-Pal-like electronic payment system Alipay in huge numbers, as cheap delivery costs and its user-friendliness have made it the first port of call for customers.

A survey conducted by Credit Suisse stated that goods sold online in China are on average of 21 percent cheaper than goods sold at conventional stores. Its low prices are attributed to competition among Chinese entrepreneurs, who have now become highly skilled at taking advantages of pricing inefficiencies. Online traders are also steadily taking advantage of China's cheap delivery services and warehousing that dodge the high rents and real estate prices in cities like Beijing.

Despite its boom, e-commerce only accounted for 1.9 percent of all product sales in China, according to Taobao itself. But those who now depend on online services to get the goods that they want are now becoming more confident in the practice, as a further survey by Nielson stated that in 2010, two thirds of Chinese households with Internet connections have used the Internet to shop.

However the challenges that the traders have faced whilst starting their business in a new city has not fazed them. "The challenge comes from the fierce competition in the industry. There are no specific restrictions on opening a shop on Taobao. This brings a lot of competitors to the industry. However, we have advantages, like the experience gained when running a real shop. More importantly, doing business of clothes is our dream. We also have made research on the demand of customers," said Foxx, a clothing trader in Beijing as he simultaneously processed three payments from online customers.