Major local virtual retailers have banded together and founded the Chinese Non-Store Retailer Association (中華無店面零售業協會) to tap into the rapidly growing virtual shopping business.
Statistics released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed that the output value of the retail industry totaled NT$3.16 trillion (US$94.95 billion) last year, with virtual stores -- including online, TV, catalogue and mobile shopping -- generating NT$196 billion, or 6.2 percent of the share.
The revenue was more than triple the NT$61.9 billion recorded in 2004, or 2.1 percent of the retail industry's total output that year.
The virtual shopping sector has an average annual growth rate of 30 percent -- much higher than brick-and-mortar stores' growth of 5 percent to 7 percent, Chang Chan-ching (張展鏡), a division director at the Department of Commerce, said at a ceremony marking the virtual shopping industry association's establishment.
"It shows that [virtual] shopping has been widely accepted by local consumers and therefore has huge growth potential," Chang said.
The association currently has 45 members, including the three major TV shopping operators -- Eastern Home Shopping Network (
Online shops such as Yahoo-Kimo Inc (雅虎奇摩), PC Home Online (網路家庭) and Payeasy.com (康訊數位整點) are also members.
The association yesterday elected the vice chairman of the Eastern Multimedia Group (
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