B2C Barriers and Strategies: A Case Study of Top B2C Companies in China

Researchers have raised several concerns about developing Internet-based business-to-consumer (B2C) applications for developing markets such as China. Although both the economy and the Internet population have grown rapidly in China, the potential of the online market there has been questioned because of three important barriers-consumers' preference for face-to-face transactions, the lack of an efficient transportation infrastructure, and an underdeveloped credit payment system. Nonetheless, the Internet B2C sector has seen much growth in China and several companies have successfully incorporated the Internet into their business. This paper examines the strategies that leading Chinese Internet firms adopted to overcome these three barriers. Besides providing insights into e-commerce development in China, the results are useful for western firms attempting to market to consumers in China and other developing countries. (C) 2006 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.