Buoyant e-commerce business spurs couriers' income

According to Sina News on Friday, the basic salary of couriers in affluent cities in China including Beijing and Shanghai is estimated to have reached 5,000 yuan (US$790) a month.

In Shenzhen, where advisements for recruiting couriers are seen everywhere in the city, more than 40 percent of these positions offer basic salary of up to 8,000 yuan (US$1,m260) a month, which is more than five times the minimum monthly salary of 1,500 yuan (US$240) in the city--which is also the highest one all over China, another report showed.

A number of Chinese B2C commercial Web sites including Tmall and 360buy.com are conducting huge sales activities in China during summer, which spurred demands for delivery services in the territory, particularly in affluent cities where people are more inclined to purchase on the Internet.

At the same time, foreign courier companies and B2C commercial giants are also about to or have received licenses to conduct business in China. The expansion of networks in China has also led to the explosion of demand for couriers in the territory, according to an industry insider.

Online shopping has seen an explosive expansion in China over the years. The market in 2011 reached 240 billion yuan (US$38 billion) in 2011, representing an increase of over 130 percent compared with the previous year.

According to the report, the nation's second-largest e-commerce Web site, 360buy.com, in June alone received 25,000 orders in Dongguan, which is a relatively small city in Guangdong Province. This figure surged 32 percent month-on-month from 19,000 a month earlier.

Apart from traditional courier company, these B2C e-commercial Web sites are also spending big money to recruit its own delivery couriers to meet the rising demand derived from its hot-spot online business.