Chinese e-commerce giants tracking daily sales in the billions

Beijing

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 US$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.