Legions of festival shoppers springing for presents online

He Ling, 26, a company executive in Beijing, hasn't bought fruit and vegetables from a supermarket for some time, preferring to log on to Womai.

"The price may be a bit higher than in the supermarket, but it saves me lots of time and I can even get a refund if a product has any problems," she said.

For Chen, Chinese Singles' Day on Nov 11 and Spring Festival are both key spending motivators.

"Brand owners should fully understand the different demands and attitudes among buyers of different ages so that people can benefit from both branding and sales during each peak spending period," Chen said.

Figures from Alipay, China's largest e-payment company, show that the average per capita online transactions - shopping, money transfers and payment of bills - exceeded 10,000 yuan ($1,640) in 2013.