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Last year, people living in Beijing shopped online an average of 5.9 times per month, up 0.8 times from 2017, while 20.6 percent shopped over ten times per month, revealed a recent report by the Survey Office of the National Bureau of Statistics in Beijing, Beijing Daily reported on Wednesday.

According to the survey report on online shoppers in Beijing, released on Monday, 66.1 percent of online shoppers in Beijing in 2018 were female, and also made up 68.3 percent of the total sales value.

The report, which was compiled from a survey of 820 active online shoppers in Beijing, revealed that people with higher educational backgrounds tended to prefer online shopping, showing that the proportions of online shoppers with a highest educational attainment of junior college degree, bachelor’s degree and master’s degree were 22.1 percent, 41.7 percent, and 11.6 percent respectively.

People in the age group of 30 to 49 made up 60 percent of the total value of online transactions, spending significantly more money than other age groups shopping online.

Overall, it seems that online shoppers are relatively rational. Of the goods and services bought online in 2018, 82.8 percent accounted for items that people would have needed to buy anyway, while only 17.2 percent of purchases were impulse buys spurred on by online deals or advertising, explained an executive of the National Bureau of Statistics in Beijing.

With a high rate of 93.8 percent, air and train tickets topped the charts in regards to offline purchases people had replaced with online purchases, while the replacement rate of crafts and collectibles was the lowest. It's thought this is because handicrafts are more personal and so people prefer to see them in person before they buy.