Mr Zhang, a businessman in Beijing, received a phone call from his hometown Guangzhou recently, telling him that the gifts and cards he booked on 8848 net have all been sent to his house. With the advent of the Chinese lunar year there has been developed by websites providing e-business a sudden tide of shopping online in China.

Wang Juntao, board chairman of 8848, said that there are about 500,000 people visiting his website everyday with a pageview of more than 6 million, a situation he didn't expect previously. Products of new styles and models have been sold well on the Internet, said Wang. During the Spring Festival days, 8848 had sold more MP3 players than traditional channels did.

Modern, cheap, time-and-energy-saving, and prompt updating are the main factors of the hot sales online.