A display shows a virtual effect of a visitor wearing a new skirt at the three-day 2012 China International E-Shopping Fair which opened at ShanghaiMart yesterday.

China will develop online commerce quickly because it is one of the vital avenues for the country to fuel domestic consumption, said a senior official in Shanghai.

"The ministry will accelerate the research and development to improve the technology, application and training of professionals, while strengthening supervision in the industry to guarantee its healthy growth," Qiu Hong, assistant minister of commerce, said at the 2012 China International E-Shopping Fair which opened at ShanghaiMart yesterday.

China's overall e-commerce sales surged an annual 29.2 percent to 5.88 trillion yuan (US$933 billion) last year. The online retail business hit 766 billion yuan, or 4.2 percent of China's overall retail sales.

Gu Jiahe, vice chairman at the Shanghai Commission of Commerce, said: "There is a huge space for e-commerce to grow as it remains a fledging sector and still accounts for a relatively small part of the total sales."

Shanghai's online retail business surged 69 percent to 58.4 billion yuan last year, outpacing the over 20 percent sales growth posted by traditional brick-and-mortar shops.

Although it is a challenge for physical shops to retain customers in the face of e-commerce, industry experts said better interaction and integration between online and offline vendors are vital to sustain consumption. For example, US-based Wal-Mart has bought a controlling stake in Chinese e-commerce firm Yihaodian for better synergy.

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