Chinese ecommerce group Alibaba has long dominated China’s Rmb2.8tn ($451bn) online retail market. However, there are signs that its smaller competitor, JD.com, is closing the gap.

According to data from FT Confidential Research, a Financial Times research service, the popularity of JD.com has soared in recent months to a record high. Nearly 45 per cent of respondents in China Confidential’s first quarter 2015 survey of almost 2,000 online shoppers said they regularly shopped on JD.com. As recently as the first quarter of 2013, just 30 per cent of shoppers surveyed said they regularly shopped there.

Although Alibaba remains the clear market leader, both of its consumer ecommerce sites — Taobao and Tmall — declined in popularity in the latest quarter, while JD.com was up sharply.