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Hard Liquor Helps E-Commerce Titans Take China’s Consumer Pulse

  • Alibaba, JD.com create indexes that track shopping habits
  • Jack Ma’s researchers gain as online retail sales surge 25.7%
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Big Data Reshaping China Indicators

Bloomberg News

Predicting the changing tastes of China’s consumers is becoming easier thanks to the country’s e-commerce giants, who monitor sales that can exceed $17 billion in a single day.

The country’s second-biggest web-based retail platform, JD.com Inc., already has dozens of new indexes tracking sales of products from liquor to appliances. Larger rival Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. plans to publish its own spending gauges in coming months.