'Taobao Villages' reaping rich e-commerce harvest

In Wantou village in Shandong province, Taobao store owner Ma Yaofei looks at his wristwatch. "Three thirty. I must ask my parents to help pack the stuff otherwise we'll miss today's delivery," he says.

Wantou looks quite a normal village at first sight. Shelled corn is spread on the road to dry and in the fields wheat has just been planted. But there is something that differentiates this place from the thousands of villages on the mainland. On entering Wantou, row after row of courier shops emerge and Wi-fi signals instantly appear on smartphones.

Ma, 28, runs an online store selling hand-woven craft, including straw-made chairs, tables, cases and small decorative items. He moved from Dongying, a city in the eastern province, to Wantou 2½ years ago and set up his shop there.

Wantou, crowned a "Taobao Village", is home to more than 500 online stores on Taobao Marketplace, internet giant Alibaba's popular consumer-to-consumer online shopping platform.

Ma said the internet allows him to reach out to the outside world. His online store's sales are 3,000 yuan (HK$3,790) to 4,000 yuan per day and his products are sold across the country. "This year in our village, sales increased by 30 to 40 per cent from last year," Ma said.

But his own business was outpaced by the average, rising only 10 per cent, he said, because too many vendors rushed in after seeing the success of the online business.