Chinese enterprises have made purchases worth 360 billion yuan ($52.2 billion) through e-commerce platforms in 2018, up 80 percent from a year ago, according to a report issued by the China Center for Information Industry Development and the Institute of China International Electronic Commerce Center on Tuesday.

The purchases of general consumption products and services stood at 150 billion yuan, rising 62 percent year-on-year, and major comprehensive platforms saw transactions of nearly 200 billion yuan.

The world is on a fast track of digital economy, with rapid development of the industrial internet. Online purchases of enterprises link the rich resources of internet techniques at one end, and the complicated management system of supply chains of enterprises at the other. It is a channel between consumer-oriented internet and industrial internet.

The report said a new type of business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce mode driven by purchases, data and technologies, as well as synergetic supply chains, was being formed.

This enables enterprises to go through all purchasing procedures online, substantially reducing their costs and promote the digitalization of traditional enterprises.

As e-commerce platforms for enterprise purchases further mature and break bottlenecks, the scale of online purchases will continue to expand in the next few years, the report predicted, saying volume might hit one trillion yuan around 2020.

(Chart: People's Daily app)

Online procurement is considered a major upgrade to corporate consumption. The report indicated that such practice can centralize purchasing, integrate purchasing process, and bring more transparency. It is set to finally cut comprehensive purchasing costs by 15 to 20 percent and improve purchasing efficiency by over 60 percent.

In addition, online purchases will also offer fairer business competition for small- and medium-sized enterprises, thus enhancing their bargaining capacity, purchasing efficiency and informatization.

(Compiled by Sun Wenyu)