(WEI YAO)

Are you still wandering around shopping malls struggling to find your daily essentials or gifts for your nearest and dearest? Then it would appear you've been stranded in the past.

One in four Chinese shop on a mobile phone or smartphone at least once a week, compared with 9 percent for global respondents, according to a report released this April by consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers.

According to the prospectus it filed to the U.S. securities regulatory body on May 7, Alibaba Group, China's largest e-commerce company, alone had a staggering 231 million active monthly buyers and 8 million active sellers by the end of 2013. These buyers and sellers transacted more than 1.54 trillion yuan ($251.22 billion) on its three major trading platforms in 2013, equivalent to the total GDP of Finland in the same year.

A world of choices

Yang Xiaomin, a 33-year-old white-collar worker who works for a multinational company in Beijing, is a veteran online shopper. She said online shopping has pervasively changed her life. She browses shopping websites every day and almost all items she needs at home are purchased online.

"Shopping online is not just about buying the things you need, it's also about information sharing, communication and a way to keep up with the times," she said. In Yang's eyes, almost every daily necessity can be taken care of through shopping websites, from home appliances to clothes, plane tickets to automobiles, and even things people would never have thought of buying, such as novelty items.

As the pace of city life grows ever more furious, it would appear the people of China, especially its younger contingent, no longer wish to spend so much time trawling their local shopping mall. "I would rather spend my weekend reading or meeting with friends than waste it in shopping malls," said Yang. She believes online shopping saves her a lot of time and energy.

In 2011, Yang bought an apartment in Chaoyang District. When the time came to decorate her new abode, she turned to the Internet for help. All the materials used to furnish her flat, including the wooden floors, kitchen cabinet, furniture and electric appliances, were purchased online.

"I heard many people say decorating an apartment is an excruciating process, but it was exciting for me because all the things I purchased online were specifically tailored to complement the style of my apartment," Yang said.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, total e-commerce transactions in China, including retail sales, are expected to exceed 18 trillion yuan ($2.94 trillion) by 2015 with online retail sales making up to 10 percent of the country's total retail sales in the same year.

Mao Ajing, an e-commerce analyst with Analysys International, said the ability to provide tailor-made and creative gifts is one of the unique selling points that online platforms possess, compared with their traditional brick-and-mortar counterparts.

To celebrate her nephew's first birthday, Yang decided to buy the little boy a gold necklace. But she found there were none carved with a snake to signify the symbolic animal of her nephew's birth year available in shopping malls. After a brief negotiation with an online shop, the seller promised to make a new one with a snake.