China is due to overtake the US to become the largest retail market in the world by the end of this year. It will be the first time that the country has been top of the list, and is forecasted to see total sales of 4.88 trillion US dollars in 2016, compared to 4.82 trillion US dollars in the United States. The forecast from eMarketer also says that the country will have the highest level of online sales, with 18% of its retail market being accounted for by ecommerce. The booming market in China comes following the successes of Alibaba, Tmall and JD which have used new digital features such as mobile payment systems to increase, and deliver on, customer demand. China's online retail market is currently the largest, with ecommerce sales in the country representing nearly 50% of all digital sales on Earth.Â
