Sidu, a village in Xianju county, East China's Zhejiang province, is well-known for its Chinese bayberry or yangmei, a dark purple-red subtropical fruit that tastes juicy and sweet.

There are 400 mu (26.67 hectares) of planting area for yangmei in Sidu. As villagers over 60 account for more than 30 percent of the village's fewer than 1,000 permanent residents, they have done most of the work.

Chen Zhanglong and his wife, whose children are working far outside the village, are the sum total of the workforce for their family's yangmei garden. The declining annual income from selling yangmei to fruit dealers had been a headache for Chen in the past few years, as the price for all kinds of inputs required for planting yangmei rises every year. Fruit dealers would not like to raise the purchase price, though, as they need to ensure profit.

It was not until 2016, when Chen opened an online shop on Alibaba's e-marketplace Taobao, that hope for his business began to take hold.

Chen has hit the sweet spot selling yangmei online, with more than 1,600 boxes being sold on Taobao last year. He introduced the e-commerce platform to other elders left behind in the village and encouraged them to sell their yangmei to all parts of the country.

"If we sell all of the yangmei we plant online, we can earn an extra 1,500 yuan （$223.8） per mu," Chen said.