China's retail industry is experiencing a burst of growth in digital sales, largely due to the increasing use of social media and mobile devices. These two factors are helping drive sales across the Asian nation, but there's more retailers can do to improve their ecommerce software and bring in even more customers. The recent PricewaterhouseCoopers global retail survey revealed trends in online shopping among Chinese consumers, giving retailers insight into which marketing strategies and other options may hold the key to higher sales.

"It is critical (for retailers) to bring the benefit of ecommerce, Online to Offline (O2O) in bricks-and-mortar (sic) environments and social media together to create more engaging shopping experiences," Dr. Colin Light, a partner in PwC's consulting division, told The Wall Street Journal. 

Shopping behavior in China
Online shopping is a relatively new option in China, as 63 percent of survey respondents from China said they only starting buying goods online within the last four years. Now, 75 percent said they shop online on a weekly basis, indicating a rapid increase in the amount of people making purchases over the Internet. The study also looked into how people were making purchases and found that social media led to online sales for 86 percent of Chinese respondents. This was the highest rate of sales through this channel across the globe. India came in a close second at 77 percent, whereas only 29 percent of American shoppers bought goods via social media sources.

Most Chinese shoppers are using mobile phones (77 percent) and tablets (66 percent) to buy items from their favorite shops, making it apparent that retailers looking to improve sales in this region need to focus on their mobile offerings. They can invest in POS software that works across multiple channels, allowing customers to more easily purchase items regardless of what device they're using.

Tailoring social media can improve sales
The PwC study looked into the way consumers use social media to interact with retailers, and the results show that this demographic is very interactive with brands' social media accounts. Roughly 93 percent of Chinese survey respondents said they have followed their favorite retail companies on social media sites, whereas only 49 percent of U.S. consumers said the same. When it came to activities such as discovering and researching brands through social media channels, the vast majority of Chinese respondents have taken part in these activities. Retailers in the Chinese marketplace would do themselves a disservice to not create and maintain a presence on social media .