Cross border e-commerce accelerates and opens up new channels for enterprises to go global

Chinese made home appliances and digital products are sweeping the Korean market; Chinas overseas cross-border e-commerce platforms have further emerged in Europe and America; Yiwu Christmas supplies, heating products and other products have seen explosive orders... The just concluded "Black Friday" shopping week has once again sparked a wave of Chinese style in overseas markets.

With strong policies and the confidence of enterprises, cross-border e-commerce has become a new driving force for promoting Chinas foreign trade growth and accelerating corporate overseas expansion.

According to customs data, in the first three quarters of this year, Chinas cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 1.7 trillion yuan, an increase of 14.4%; Among them, exports reached 1.3 trillion yuan, an increase of 17.7%.

"Fast" is a distinctive feature of Chinas cross-border e-commerce development. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, the scale of cross-border e-commerce in China has increased by nearly 10 times in the past five years. National policy support, accelerated logistics clearance, and accelerated layout of e-commerce platforms have driven the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce, becoming a new highlight of foreign trade growth.

The rapid development of cross-border e-commerce in China cannot be separated from policy support. Since the term "cross-border e-commerce" first appeared in government work reports in 2014, cross-border e-commerce has been included in government work reports for 10 consecutive years. A series of supportive policies have been introduced from the central to local levels, continuously injecting momentum into the development of cross-border e-commerce.

Since the beginning of this year, Shanghai has proposed 18 key tasks, including implementing the "Overseas Excellent Products" action plan and improving the public service level of cross-border e-commerce; Shandong proposes to strive to create 20 cross-border e-commerce characteristic industrial belts by 2025; Jiangsu proposes to build more than 120 cross-border e-commerce industrial parks and cultivate more than 600 industry-leading and internationally competitive cross-border e-commerce enterprises by 2025

Zhu Keli, founding director of the National Research Institute of New Economy, said, "By supporting the development of cross-border e-commerce and tapping into economic growth potential, various regions have provided important support for promoting stable foreign trade scale, promoting innovation, and increasing momentum."

The acceleration of logistics clearance and the continuous improvement of supporting services are a significant foundation for promoting the release of Chinas cross-border e-commerce advantages and potential.

On the evening of November 4th at 8 oclock, the worlds first live broadcast of cross-border logistics came to an end. A product sent from China can be delivered to consumers thousands of miles away in just 5 days. From the original 60 day delivery to 10 day delivery, and now to the current 5 day delivery, cross-border e-commerce logistics have continuously broken the "fastest" record.

In recent years, relevant departments have introduced nearly 200 innovative measures, accelerating the comprehensive reform of comprehensive bonded zones and continuously promoting the all-round acceleration of Chinas cross-border e-commerce, including online shopping bonded imports, direct purchase imports, special area exports, and cross-border e-commerce exports to overseas warehouses. As of now, China has signed bilateral e-commerce cooperation memorandums with 29 countries, with over 1500 cross-border e-commerce overseas warehouses and a total area of over 19 million square meters.

According to World Bank logistics performance data, Chinas logistics performance index ranked 19th globally in 2022; Ranked 14th in international shipping. Specifically, in 2022, the overall clearance time for imported and exported goods nationwide was 32.02 hours and 1.03 hours, respectively, which was 67.1% and 91.6% shorter than 2017; Compared to the 48 hour clearance time stipulated by the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), it is about 16 hours faster.

The rapid development of cross-border e-commerce platforms is helping enterprises accelerate their exploration of overseas markets.

The reporter learned that since this year, Alibaba, Pinduoduo, JD, ByteDance and other e-commerce platforms have continuously increased their cross-border e-commerce business. Alibaba has launched its foreign trade AI product "Business Assistant", Pinduoduos Temu has launched a "Full Custody" model, and JD Logistics is accelerating its layout in the international supply chain field. These diversified cross-border businesses have continuously opened up new space for the development of cross-border e-commerce, and have also become a "new channel" for many small and medium-sized enterprises to accelerate their overseas expansion.

"We export over 400000 packages every day, with an average daily weight of around 600 tons." The person in charge of Duoduo Cross border, an overseas cross-border platform under Pinduoduo, told reporters that as of the end of the third quarter, Duoduo Cross border has penetrated more than 100 manufacturing industry belts in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shandong, Anhui and other regions, promoting high-quality manufacturing products to enter more than 40 countries and regions in North America, Australia, Europe, Asia and other regions, Assisted over ten thousand Chinese factories in successfully going global.

Cross border e-commerce has significantly lowered the threshold for international trade specialization, making a large number of small and micro entities become operators of new types of trade. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, currently there are over 100000 cross-border e-commerce entities and over 200000 independent websites in China. The proportion of cross-border e-commerce goods import and export to foreign trade has increased from less than 1% five years ago to about 5% at present.

Li Mingtao, Chief Expert of E-commerce at the China International E-commerce Center of the Ministry of Commerce, stated that cross-border e-commerce platforms provide new commercial infrastructure for overseas enterprises. "The global channels we have built provide strong support for the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce in marketing, logistics and other services."