The e-commerce revolution: Ensuring trust and consumer rights in China

Abstract

This paper addresses the disparity between the growing e-commerce culture in China and the lack of consumer trust in online purchases. The paper begins with a review of China's e-commerce history. It then points out that distrust of both online and offline purchases is widespread in China. It goes on to review China's Consumer Protection Law which came into force on 1 January 1994 and a major amendment to the Law effectuated on 15 March 2014. While it could take some time to reveal the effectiveness of the amended Law, the task of changing the status quo, that is, to alter consumers' propensity for distrust, has fallen to the e-marketplace operators themselves. The paper then discusses how Alibaba's Taobao.com, a leading C2C e-marketplace in China, has tried to boost consumer confidence in online transactions by designing and implementing a number of self-regulated trust-building service systems. The paper concludes with a discussion of the significance of consumer rights protection and its possible future impact on China's sustainable development in e-commerce and integration into the global online economy.