On the 23rd, the head of the E-commerce Department of the Ministry of Commerce briefed on China's e-commerce development from January to September 2026. During that period, the growth momentum of China's e-commerce sector continued to innovate, online retail supported consumption growth, and international cooperation deepened, helping to strengthen the resilience and vitality of the country's economic development.
The development momentum has become more innovation-driven. A "Five Excellence" campaign for quality e-commerce was implemented to guide the industry from scale expansion toward quality improvement. E-commerce platforms accelerated independent research and development in cloud services, large models, and computing power chips, with large model performance levels, monthly active users, and token invocation volumes rising to the top ranks globally, making the sector an important new force in China's artificial intelligence development. E-commerce is empowering agriculture, industry, and services with digital and intelligent capabilities.
From January to September, according to big data monitoring by the Ministry of Commerce, online retail sales of agricultural products grew by 12.6%, while online retail sales in the Tianjin carpet and Jiangxi porcelain industry belts rose by 26.3% and 25.9% respectively. According to National Bureau of Statistics data, the added value of the information transmission, software, and information technology services sector grew by 10.4%.
Consumption stimulus has become more powerful. According to National Bureau of Statistics data, nationwide online retail sales of goods and services grew by 4.4% from January to September, and according to Ministry of Commerce estimates, it contributed 45.4% to the growth of total retail sales of consumer goods and services. The role of online driving offline has strengthened; according to National Bureau of Statistics data, goods retail sales realized through the internet by units above designated size accounted for 31.8%, up 3.9 percentage points from the same period last year. Online service retail sales grew relatively fast; according to Ministry of Commerce big data monitoring, online tourism, online lifestyle services, and online catering grew by 25.7%, 13.9%, and 12.2% respectively.
International cooperation has deepened further. The fifth Global Digital Trade Expo was held, attracting 2,008 companies to exhibit and more than 50,000 professional buyers from 163 countries and regions to attend and procure. During the event, a series of "Silk Road E-commerce Day" activities were held, with more than 600 representatives from government, industry, academia, and research circles from over 30 countries and international organizations engaging in in-depth exchanges on policy, industry, and capacity building, building consensus on e-commerce development. The e-commerce seminar for developing countries and ASEAN trained students from 18 countries offline, while the Cloud Lecture Hall Africa special session attracted participation from 22 African countries. Cross-border e-commerce maintained relatively fast growth; according to preliminary estimates by the General Administration of Customs, China's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports grew by 4.4% from January to September.
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