Chinese e-commerce market is set to grow from sales revenue of 13.8 trillion yuan ($2.1 trillion) in 2021 to 19.6 trillion yuan ($3.0 trillion) in 2024, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.4 percent, according to newly-released GlobalData forecasts.

This year alone, e-commerce sales in China are expected to register growth of 17.2 percent and, according to an eMarketer report released earlier this year, will surpass offline sales for the first time. In 2021, it predicted, 52 percent of China’s sales will take place online, up from almost 45 percent in 2020.

According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, while total retail sales of consumer goods in the country declined by 3.9 percent in 2020, online retail sales of physical goods increased by 14.8 percent during the same period.

“Chinese e-commerce market has been on the rise during the last five years,” said Nikhil Reddy, banking and payments analyst at GlobalData. “The uptrend is likely to continue over the next few years driven by the growing consumer preference, and the emergence of new online payment methods.”