Alibaba leads in Hong Kong’s ecommerce, but opportunities abound for smaller players

Ecommerce plays a very important role in Hong Kong’s economy. Statista projects that this year, the sector alone would generate revenue worth US$4.8 billion. This figure is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 7.4 percent between 2019 and 2023, resulting in a market volume of US$6.4 billion by 2023. This indicates an incredible potential for the industry in the next four years.

To learn more about the top ecommerce players in Hong Kong, we at iPrice conducted a market analysis by looking at data such as average total visits (desktop and mobile) and mobile app rankings (App Store and Google Play).

Top 10 ecommerce platforms in Hong Kong

The graphic below shows the total average visits per platform as of Q4 2018.

To ensure fair analysis and comparison, our report focuses on ecommerce companies based in Hong Kong, international companies with an official Hong Kong domain, and selected popular international platforms used by consumers in the city.

In Q4 2018, Tmall took the lead with an average of 7.9 million total visits, ahead of DC Fever (5.6 million) and HKTV Mall (4.4 million). Tmall’s parent company, Alibaba, invested heavily in marketing for the Singles Day or 11.11 sale, which explains the uptick in November 2018 with a whopping 10.1 million total visits. However, the number dropped to 3.9 million in December 2018, which could indicate that Christmas sale is not as big as Singles Day sale.

Both DC Fever and HKTV Mall observed the same pattern. But as expected of ecommerce platforms, they rebounded with a 10 percent increase in total visits in January 2019 during the pre-Chinese New Year festivities.

Popular foreign ecommerce platforms

Estimated total visits from Hong Kong in January 2019

Hong Kong consumers are avid shoppers on international ecommerce platforms as well. Among the most visited are China’s Taobao and JD.

As of January 2019, Taobao had over 601 million total worldwide visits, 3.98 percent of which were from Hong Kong. This translates to 23.95 million visits – and the city has a population of 7.5 million.

The top ecommerce platforms following Taobao during the same period – Tmall (7.9 million), JD (5.2 million), HKTV Mall (4.5 million), and DC Fever (4.2 million) – garnered fewer total visits than Taobao. This indicates that Taobao is the most visited ecommerce platform in the city, based on SimilarWeb’s data. (Note: SimilarWeb traffic figures are estimates.)

According to a report, Hong Kong is now a battlefield for Singles Day sale. Alibaba, which also runs Taobao, first popularized the event, successfully obtaining a record-breaking US$18.26 billion within just 24 hours. Just last year, JD followed suit and launched their first Singles Day sale.

“Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan markets are strategically important for our global expansion. Consumers in the region are very picky and have an international mindset. If we can win them over, we can win the rest of the world over,” Jake Yu, head of supply chain at JD, said.

Top mobile shopping apps

2019 and beyond