According to Groeber, the future of retailing is a multi-channel model, which puts the consumer in the driver's seat, with the ability to shop anywhere, buy anywhere and receive products in the manner and time of their choosing. With access to the Internet through a computer or a smartphone, shopping now becomes easier than ever without walking and huddling with other shoppers for last-minute discount offers.

A Bain & Co study suggesting many non-e-commerce shoppers expect to make their first online purchase in 2012 may give more confidence to industry insiders.

Online sales are exploding in China, and Western companies are racing to develop successful e-commerce strategies to capitalize on this fertile market. The Ministry of Commerce said that Web-based B2C sales in 2011 reached $124.22 billion, a 53.7 percent increase from the previous year. Furthermore, mobile commerce is on the rise in China, with Near-Field Communication (NFC) and QC Code having already made its way into Chinese e-commerce. Forrester Research, a global research and advisory firm, estimates that the total value of the e-commerce retail market in China will grow to $356 billion in 2016.

Named as a leading B2C commerce suite vendor in Forrester Research's latest Wave report on B2C Commerce, hybris provides the tools that enable organizations to meet demand by deploying the market's first fully integrated, truly multi-channel commerce solution from the start. It does this by supporting complete out-of-the-box B2C desktop and mobile and B2B desktop implementations and includes more features and options as standard than any other solution currently available.

With the expertise of hybris, which empowers a multi-channel commerce, Benefit Cosmetics, an international cosmetics brand, marched into China's e-commerce market by launching a uniquely designed Chinese language website while aligning it with its global business model.

Since the company was founded in 1997, hybris has been powering the global commerce operations of some of the world's biggest retail and consuming brands, including Galeries Lafayette, Levi's, Lufthansa, Migros, Nespresso, Nikon and Toys'r'Us.

hewei@chinadaily.com.cn