The imbalance between Hong Kong the shopping hub and Hong Kong the e-commerce snob

Don’t look now but it seems like Hong Kong, the supposedly recognized hub of tourism and shopping in this part of Asia, continues to downplay the power of e-commerce. According to EcommercePlus data, the top three Chinese provinces that have fully embraced e-commerce based on total online purchase orders are Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu. Meanwhile, the top three cities that are fond of online shopping are Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai. What’s wrong with this picture? No Hong Kong in sight, that’s what!


Guangzhou and Guangdong may be close neighbors of Hong Kong but the latter, the widely recognized mecca of retail and wholesale trade and shopping, is apparently an e-commerce snob. In fact, based on the data gathered by EcommercePlus, Hong Kong is nowhere even in the top 10!

Now the questions are: why do Hong Kong people resist e-commerce? What is it about e-commerce exactly that they frown upon?

And for the businesses (both online and offline) that want to garner more Hong Kong online orders, the challenge now is: what should you as a business entity do, acquire and implement in order to attract the attention of the Hong Kong customers?

The most possible steps to take would be to have cleaner, more transparent and more efficient portals where orders and customer relations can be established, developed and maintained. These portals must not only be pleasing to the eye and must not only offer good products or services…these must also know how to address customer concerns in the most effective manner. By the way, these portals need not be websites. They can be Facebook pages, Twitter pages, Sina Weibo profiles and the like. Of course, the employees who will process the orders must have topnotch customer service skills. And it will help a lot if a digital agency is on hand to assist. Perhaps only then can Hong Kong finally see a rise in the level of interest for online shopping.

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