China’s e-commerce sector sustained strong momentum as a key driver of consumer spending and economic activity in the first 11 months of this year, with digital products and online services leading the expansion, the Ministry of Commerce reported Tuesday.
Data shows that online retail sales continued to elevate product quality and tap into domestic demand potential. Sales of digital goods on major monitored platforms rose 8.2 percent, with smart wearables and smart robots each posting double-digit growth. Consumption of online services recorded a robust increase of 21.7 percent.
E-commerce platforms also played a central role in fostering innovation-led development. Rural online retail sales tracked by commercial big data climbed 9.8 percent from January through November.
Platforms have further solidified their position as key innovators, with average research and development intensity among leading platforms hitting 8.3 percent in the first three quarters, a level that places China among global leaders in fields such as AI cloud services and proprietary text-to-video and text-to-image large language models.
In addition, the "Silk Road E-commerce" initiative deepened international cooperation and mutual benefit. The nationwide “Silk Road Cloud Products” e-commerce promotion campaign helped lift import retail sales on monitored platforms by 5.6 percent during the first 11 months, reinforcing the role of e‑commerce as a bridge between domestic and international consumer markets.
