Cross-border digital shopping in China, according to eMarketer's figures, grew by more than 70 percent in 2015. This is due, in part, to a higher standard of living in China, along with a greater exposure to - and knowledge of - foreign products.

The cross-border e-commerce boom in China is part of a growing global trend. The global business-to-consumer e-commerce market, which amounted to $230bn in 2014, will balloon in size to $1tr in 2020, according to a report from global consulting firm Accenture and AliResearch, Alibaba Group's research arm. In the report, researchers forecasted cross-border e-commerce will see compound annual growth of 27.4 percent over the next five years, double the rate of worldwide B2C shopping as a whole.

By 2020, more than 900 million people around the world will be international online shoppers, with their purchases accounting for nearly 30 percent of global B2C transactions. By then, according to the Accenture-AliResearch report, China will become the largest cross-border B2C market. Over 200 million Chinese consumers are expected to be cross-border shopping within five years, with a transaction volume of imported goods purchased online reaching $245bn.

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