Entertainers and employees perform during the parade at the annual party to mark the 18th anniversary of the founding of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group at the Yellow Dragon Sports Center in Hangzhou city, East China's Zhejiang province, Sept 8, 2017. [Photo/IC]

China's e-commerce market saw strong growth in the first half of this year, according to a report released Tuesday.

China's e-commerce trading recorded 13.35 trillion yuan ($2.03 trillion) for the first half of 2017, a 27.1 percent increase year-on-year, China Research Center of E-Commerce said in the report.

Business-to-business transactions reached 9.8 trillion yuan, online retail sales were at 3.1 trillion yuan, and e-commerce trading for life services was about 0.45 trillion yuan.

Cross-border e-commerce reached 3.6 trillion yuan in H1, up 30.7 percent year-on-year, accounting for 26.97 percent of China's total e-commerce trade volume, with 2.75 trillion yuan for export and 862.4 billion yuan for import.

With policy support and a relatively complete system, China's e-commerce maintained rapid growth and as China's economy transforms to the "consumer upgrade" era, e-commerce has created many new consumption demands, said Zhang Zhouping, senior analyst with the research center.

This has triggered a new investment boom, created more job opportunities, increased income and provided the space for mass entrepreneurship and innovation in the country, Zhang added.

As of the end of June, more than 3.1 million people worked directly in e-commerce and more than 23 million indirectly, the report revealed.

Revenue for China's express delivery business was 257.29 billion yuan in the first half of 2017 and is expected to reach 600 billion yuan with a projected growth rate of 49.8 percent.