Cross-border e-commerce surges tenfold

The cross-border e-commerce trade has become an important tool to stabilize foreign trade and promote consumption thanks to such advantages as online transaction, contactless delivery and short transaction chain, said the People's Daily on Wednesday.

Data from Chinese customs showed that the country's import and export scale of the cross-border e-commerce increased nearly tenfold in the past five years, and its share in foreign trade rose from less than 1 percent in 2015 to 4.9 percent in 2021.

The import and export scale of the cross-border e-commerce reached 1.62 trillion yuan ($226.8 billion) in 2020, surging 25.7 percent year-on-year, and the figures hit 1.92 trillion yuan in 2021, an increase of 18.6 percent from a year earlier, realizing a rapid growth for two consecutive years.

In the first six months of this year, the import and export transaction volume of the cross-border e-commerce grew 28.6 percent year-on-year to maintain steady and rapid growth.

Recently, China has approved the establishment of comprehensive pilot zones for cross-border e-commerce in another 33 cities and regions, making it the seventh batch of such pilot areas, and the total number of the pilots reached 165 across the country.

Many of the latest batches of comprehensive pilot zones for cross-border e-commerce are located in central and western China as well as the country's border areas.

The pilot zones are expected to help facilitate the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, and optimize and upgrade foreign trade, said the Xinhua news agency.

The first comprehensive pilot zone for cross-border e-commerce was established in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province. In past seven years, the city has fostered 49,000 cross-border e-commerce sellers, registered more than 2,000 overseas trademarks, and the trade volume of the cross-border e-commerce reached over 100 billion yuan.

In Jiangsu province, the scale of cross-border e-commerce business has increased by more than four times annually in the past three years. Over 90 cross-border e-commerce industrial parks and incubation bases have been built, and more than 280 overseas warehouses have been set up covering key markets such as in countries and regions participating in the Belt and Road Initiative.

The cross-border e-commerce has become a strong new driving force to stabilize the foreign trade under the COVID-19 pandemic, said the People's Daily.

The cross-border e-commerce has significantly lowered the specialization threshold in international trade, that enabling a large number of small and micro entities to become new trade operators, said Sheng Qiuping, vice-minister of commerce.

At present, more than 30,000 enterprises have registered on the online integrated service platform of the comprehensive pilot zone for cross-border e-commerce.

The cross-border e-commerce is also a new path to promote Chinese people in consumption upgrading. Its characters of decentralization globalization can meet consumers' needs for tailor-made products, said a report from the Academy of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

Logistics is a key factor to cross-border e-commerce services on timeliness and stability. In recent years, innovative models are emerging in the logistics, such as building overseas warehouses, return center warehouses and high-quality goods warehouses for export. The comprehensive service complex formed, including warehousing, logistics, customs declaration and clearance, return and exchange, processing and maintenance, packaging and distribution.

Data from the Ministry of Commerce showed that the number of the overseas warehouses surpassed 2,000 and the area exceeding 16 million square meters, currently.