Embrace new forms of foreign trade and weave a globalized and beautiful future
The morning sunshine filtered through the mist, and Shanghai Port was already bustling with activity. Freight ships and container ships shuttle between the waterways, with loading and unloading machinery waving huge lifting arms on the shore, accurately unloading containers from the ships and quickly loading them onto trucks for transportation to cross-border e-commerce logistics centers. Workers are busy sorting packages from different countries, skillfully operating automated equipment to classify packages by destination and transportation method, ensuring that each package can be accurately and quickly delivered to consumers.
With the development of economic globalization and information technology, this form of international trade, namely cross-border e-commerce, has increasingly become the norm in China's foreign trade. In the process of the world economy moving towards the digital age, it has become a consensus to vigorously develop the digital economy. In this situation, cross-border e-commerce was born from "Internet technology+foreign trade", which greatly shortened the chain of foreign trade transactions, and catered to the development trend of global trade economy with the characteristics of small amount, low cost, low risk and flexibility.
According to relevant institutions, in 2023, the global cross-border B2C e-commerce market reached a scale of $1.5 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 25%, which demonstrates strong demand in the cross-border market. Among them, as a massive economy, China has become a powerful engine for the growth of cross-border e-commerce. According to the latest data released by China Customs, the total import and export volume of cross-border e-commerce in China reached 2.38 trillion yuan in 2023, an increase of 15.6%. Among them, exports reached 1.83 trillion yuan, an increase of 19.6%; Imports reached 548.3 billion yuan, an increase of 3.9%. The rapid development of cross-border e-commerce has not only met the diverse and personalized needs of domestic consumers, but also helped China's products reach the world, becoming an important driving force for the development of foreign trade.
It is precisely such business opportunities that more and more Chinese enterprises are turning their attention to overseas markets and seeking greater development space. Cross border e-commerce exports have become an increasingly important path. "In just two months, we have received over 9000 inquiries from overseas buyers through live streaming." Speaking of this achievement, Manager Wu of the Sales Department of Shenzhen Maiwei Times Technology Co., Ltd. was particularly excited. She introduced to reporters that the company mainly sells children's science and technology products such as smart water cups, and the overseas customer market is mainly concentrated in Europe and America. In response to the trend of foreign trade development, the company decided to conduct cross-border live streaming on Alibaba International Station during last year's Spring Festival.
"The live streaming team started with product selection and stocking, and put in a lot of effort in product selling points, live room decoration, target customer selection, and other aspects. At the beginning of the live room operation, the average number of viewers per session exceeded 1000, and the viewers were all professional purchasing buyers, which is already impressive enough," said Manager Wu.
Cross border e-commerce has brought more business opportunities to foreign trade enterprises and also provided new opportunities for industrial clusters. At the opening ceremony of the 30th Ancient Town Lantern Expo in Zhongshan City, the Ancient Town Government signed a contract with Shenzhen Baohong Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Baohong Company") to jointly cultivate the cross-border e-commerce transaction service platform project of Baohong Company. This project will adopt a "cross-border e-commerce+industrial belt" model to help Zhongshan lighting enterprises more effectively connect with overseas buyers and consumers through online platforms and digital marketing channels.
"The reason for landing this project in Zhongshan is because we are optimistic about the development foundation and advantages of the Zhongshan lighting industry belt. Based on this, we can fully leverage our professional experience in overseas marketing channels, information systems, and bonded warehousing operations to help Zhongshan lighting enterprises effectively connect and expand overseas markets." The relevant person in charge of Baohong Company said in an interview with China Trade Daily.
At present, there are over 100000 cross-border e-commerce entities and over 200000 independent websites in China. Small and medium-sized enterprises are vigorously expanding their global market through cross-border e-commerce platforms, gradually growing into new types of trade operators in the global digital wave. Various cross-border e-commerce platforms actively encourage and support the branding operation of small and medium-sized enterprises, striving to contribute to the transformation of "Chinese products" into "Chinese brands", and becoming an important force in cultivating new momentum for foreign trade and consolidating the foundation of foreign trade and investment.
The rapid development of cross-border e-commerce in our country is due to the introduction of a series of policy measures to promote the development of cross-border e-commerce, as well as the continuous promotion of innovation in technology, channels, policies, services, and other aspects. In 2023, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting the Stable Scale and Optimal Structure of Foreign Trade", which proposed to "promote the healthy and sustainable innovative development of cross-border e-commerce", "encourage various regions to combine their industrial and endowment advantages, innovate and build cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones, actively develop the" cross-border e-commerce+industrial belt "model, and drive cross-border e-commerce enterprises to export to enterprises". In addition, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council jointly issued the "Notice on Consolidating the Revitalization and Boosting the Industrial Economy", which mentioned supporting the development of new foreign trade formats such as cross-border e-commerce and overseas warehouses; The Ministry of Finance, the General Administration of Customs, and the State Administration of Taxation jointly issued a notice on the tax policy for cross-border e-commerce export return goods, pointing out the need to reduce the export return cost of cross-border e-commerce enterprises, actively support the development of new forms of foreign trade... A series of effective policy "combination fists" are used to safeguard the development of cross-border e-commerce.
"Cross border e-commerce is a new business model for enterprises to effectively explore the international market, and 'cross-border e-commerce+industrial belt' is a new development model to promote industrial economic growth. Professor Wei Hao from the School of Economics and Business Administration of Beijing Normal University said in an interview with reporters that relevant departments attach great importance to this new foreign trade business model. With the innovative development of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones, the promotion and optimization of overseas warehouse construction and layout, the strengthening of international logistics system construction, and the continuous promotion of enterprise digital transformation, cross-border e-commerce is expected to continue to maintain a high speed of growth in 2024, and the role of cross-border e-commerce in the stable development of China's foreign trade will become increasingly prominent.".
As night falls, the lights of Shanghai Port flicker, illuminating this busy and vibrant land. The various businesses of cross-border e-commerce are still continuing, like flowing bonds connecting every corner of the world, weaving together a beautiful future of globalization.