E-commerce is now a melting pot of shopping cultures

I buy certain Indian groceries, including unusual vegetables, from stores on Taobao that specialize in such commodities.

In Sanya, Hainan province, some retailers cater to Russians (even their signboards are in the Russian language). These days, Australians and Africans in China buy on Tmall.com. Chinese consumers in China buy foreign products on platforms such as xiji.com and ymatou.com on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Conceivably, the next trend could be something like this: Indian consumers in China will buy Indian products directly from Indian online marketplaces, even as their compatriots back in India buy Chinese gadgets directly from Alibaba.