Can The Chinese Banking System Become A Popular E-commerce Retailer?

E-commerce is the future of retail sales, and as such, many companies are finding new and innovative ways to jump on the ecommerce bandwagon. While this is understandable and to be expected, there are some surprise players entering the game. One such unexpected, and unconventional, new ecommerce entrepreneur wannabe is the Chinese banking system. But, how will this work, and can the Chinese banking system really become a popular ecommerce retailer? Read on to learn more:

The who and what of it. China Construction Bank (CCB) is the attention-grabber in this scenario. This bank, the world’s second largest of its sort in terms of market value, made its way into the spotlight over a year ago with its launching of an online ecommerce store (imagine Wells Fargo entering the online sales market to compete with Amazon.com, if you want some picture of how unconventional a move this is). The decision to develop a .com superstore seems a logical precursor to CCB’s more recent decision to expand its breadth to encompass thousands of vendors, of all types and sizes. In effect, this would make China Construction Bank one of the world’s most powerful online shopping malls.

Image is licensed under CC Attribution

The lightbulb moment. What initiated this paradigm change was the forward thinking of a business owner by the name of Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba. Frustrated with the banking system for being stingy with business loans, Mr. Ma made a speech vowing to change the landscape of the banking system, and then joined forces with CCB to provide his own business loans through an extension of Alibaba, called AliLoan. CCB quickly realized the earning potential of ecommerce sites like Alibaba, and at the same time realized the advantage Mr. Ma had in that he was the one with access to customer purchasing data. Not too long after, CCB and Mr. Ma parted ways, and CCB ventured into ecommerce.

What this says about the banking system. Of course, it is obvious that banks are about making money, and a move into ecommerce is grounded in financial payoff. However, there is much more to CCB’s decision to move into the ecommerce sector, and it says a lot about the landscape of China’s banking system. For one, China’s banks used to be very dependent on the government; as that is changing, they are now finding themselves in a position to have to compete with each other, and with big business, in general. Secondly, in this Age of Information, there is a lot of value in being able to tap into the consumer data market, and maintaining a popular ecommerce site means being privy to a wealth of such data.

Technology has completely revolutionized the way people shop, and the way companies sell. Now, it has also ushered in a new brand of business entity – that of the ecommerce/bank powerhouse.

This is an article from Keitha Niedbala. She’s an ecommerce specialist who knows that a little innovative thinking can go a long way. Want to build your first ecommerce site? Make sure you check this out and you’ll be well on your way to designing your first business.