BEIJING -- China's online sales are estimated to hit 51 billion yuan (US$6.38 billion) in 2007, up 63 percent on the previous year, according to a report by iResearch, an Internet research company.

The report shows the registered number of online shoppers was 43.1 million in 2006 and the number is expected to surge to 55 million this year.

The country's online sales reached 31.2 billion yuan - 8.2 billion yuan B2C (business-to-consumer) trading and 23 billion yuan C2C (consumer-to-consumer) trading - last year, 60 percent higher than the previous year. C2C was up 85 percent.

Commodities sold through B2C trading were mainly audio and visual products and computer software.

With the establishment of a third party payment service and the credit rating system, online shopping has attracted an increasing number of consumers, because they are less worried about the safety issues of paying for something online, said Hou Tao, iResearch market executive.

China has 123 million Internet users, 26 percent of whom have shopped online, according to the China Internet Network Information Center.