Leading e-commerce operators like JD.com and Taobao.com are helping to push Chinese online retail sales higher.

The National Bureau of Statistics of China released its latest report showing that during the first half of 2015, China's Internet retail sales reached CNY1.646 trillion, representing a year-on-year increase of 39.1%.

Of the total Internet retail sales, physical goods Internet retail sales increased by 38.6% to CNY1.376 trillion, accounting for 9.7% of social consumer retail sales; while non-physical goods Internet retail sales increased by 41.9% to CNY270 billion.

The statistics also showed that from January to June 2015, China's social consumer retail sales reached CNY14.158 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 10.4% and the actual growth rate was 10.5% if excluding price factors. However, the growth rate was 0.2% lower than the first quarter of 2015.

By location of operating units, China's consumer retail sales in urban areas were CNY12.185 trillion during the reporting period, a year-on-year increase of 10.2%; and the consumer retail sales in rural areas were CNY1.973 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 11.6%.

By consumption pattern, food and beverage retail sales were CNY1.5 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 11.5%; and commodity retail sales were CNY12.658 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 10.3%.