(Yicai Global) Oct. 30 -- China's younger consumers are not alone in enjoying the convenience of e-commerce.

Chinese consumers over 50 spent close to USD752 (CNY5,000) per capita on online shopping during the first nine months of this year, and bought an average of 44 products apiece on the web.

China has a large population of middle-aged and elderly e-shoppers, and nearly 30 million consumers on Taobao.com and Tmall.com belong to this demographic, per data Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. [NYSE:BABA] released recently. Some 75 percent of them are retirees aged 50 to 59, Nanfang Daily reported.

Cellphones, prepaid phone cards, clothes and toiletries were the most popular items among older e-shoppers, the data show.

Many of them pay using the red packet, transfer and 'face-to-face' remittance services in WeChat (Tencent Holdings Ltd.'s [HK:0700] messaging app) as well as the transfer, utility bill payment and top-up services on Alipay, Alibaba's third-party payment platform.