E-commerce faces carpe diem moment

Amid consumption upgrade, new law will bring daigou using online platforms under greater scrutiny, and rid e-shopping of frauds, fakes

A new e-commerce law that will take effect next year will increase the cost of daigou (which is Chinese for buying things on behalf of somebody else), thereby helping address deep-seated problems in this booming industry and better regulate online merchants and e-commerce platforms, experts said.

A daigou is usually an individual (a middleman, if you will) who shops for foreign products overseas for consumers on the Chinese mainland, usually for a fee.