With the growing middle class in the country, it is almost inevitable that two way trade is going to grow between China as well as the rest of the world. So it seems it has, and China Post has reported growth in parcel volumes by 70% since 2014 to around 700 million parcels in 2015.

China Post set up a company called ePacket in 2010 designed to move goods that are bought from e-commerce. This has seen volumes increase by 90% in 2015 alone. ePacket enables US customers to buy goods from China for around USD $5 for a parcel of up to 2kg. The goods are then sent via the China Post and USPS to the customer’s door. The price has encouraged e-commerce trade between the two countries to mushroom. Alibaba is a major customer of ePacket, with 70% of parcels sent via its AliExpress online shopping portal being sent through eParcel.

The weighting of China Post’s business toward the USA as against the rest of the world is shown in the amount of air cargo flights – 109 flights a week go between the US and China according to China Post’s own figures, or 20% of its total international deliveries.

China already has the world’s largest e-commerce market, worth USD $449bn as against the US USD $305bn in the same period. As such those seeking to sell to China have a large market. It is estimated that 26% of China’s 650 million online shoppers are buying goods from abroad. The PayPal study also found that 14% of those shopping preferred US goods.

As the sleeping dragon of Chinese e-commerce awakens, so there will be plenty of opportunities to export there. Those that can deliver goods to China will see revenues increase considerably as the market is far from mature and has plenty of room for growth left.

Apex Insight has recently published a report which covers the Chinese parcels market: Global Parcel Delivery Market Insight Report 2015. While the US remains the largest market in value terms, China is witnessing staggering growth in parcel volumes and is now the world’s largest market by volume.