MILESTONE: Liu Qiangdong (center), founder and CEO of online shopping giant JD.com, poses for a photo with some of his employees at NASDAQ MarketSite in New York where JD.com listed on the stock exchange on May 22 (WANG LEI)

Big-ticket items such as cars were once considered beyond the scope of Internet marketing. But that perception is rapidly changing. Yang ordered a car online in 2012 as she was too busy to visit car dealerships. "The car I wanted was right there on the Internet, just waiting for me to snap it up," Yang said with a sense of accomplishment.

The car she referred to was a Smart, an ultra-minicar manufactured by German auto major Daimler AG. In February 2012, Daimler teamed up with online shopping platform JD.com to promote online sales of Smart. On the first day, Mercedes-Benz, Daimler AG's luxury car unit, received bookings for all of the 300 Smarts it offered online in the first 89 minutes.

During the Singles' Day promotional sale on November 11 last year, China's three biggest online car retailers—Tmall.com, Autohome.com.cn and Yiche.com—received orders for a jaw-dropping 170,000 cars valued at 23.5 billion yuan ($3.83 billion).

"The digitally-enabled environment is fast changing consumer shopping habits. The Internet will continue to increase in importance globally and in China, as both a marketing communication vehicle and a sales driver," said Jonathan Seliger, President and CEO of Coach China, a unit of Coach, a leading American designer and maker of luxury lifestyle handbags and accessories.

The weird and wonderful

For those of an eccentric bent whose tastes run to the outlandish, Chinese online marketplaces, especially Taobao.com, are never short of bizarre services catering to rarified niche markets.

During this year's Tomb-Sweeping Day in April, Taobao.com, a customer-to-customer platform of Alibaba, provided tomb-sweeping services for those who are too busy or unable to pay their respects at the graves of their lost family members or friends.

The annual tradition of Tomb-Sweeping Day is intended to allow people to remember their departed loved ones, but the congestion of people and vehicles at cemeteries has made it an arduous experience for most visitors during the brief period.

On Taobao.com, more than 20 online stores offered tomb-sweeping services. People who wished to vicariously pay their respects could pay an average 500 yuan ($81.57) for a flower basket and three bows. Videos or photos of the ceremony would be sent to the clients to show that services had been rendered. Additional services cost extra money.

The idea of tomb sweeping by proxy has raised concerns about declining filial piety. However, Yu Jianrong, a professor with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said it is acceptable. "Asking others to sweep tombs has been seen throughout our history. If someone is far away from home, he can ask friends or other family members to do it for him," Yu said.