E-commerce helps take bite out of duties

Chinese e-commerce platforms have taken steps to help the country's exporters sell their products at home, expand sales channels and alleviate inventory pressures, as part of a broader push to hedge against the impact of United States' tariff hikes and expand domestic demand.

They said that these supportive measures will help export-oriented companies open up the domestic market, strengthen domestic circulation and boost consumption, while further unleashing the vitality and potential of China's ultra-large market to address challenges posed by external shocks.

JD has announced it will purchase 200 billion yuan ($27.3 billion) worth of goods from exporters over the next year to help them sell products domestically. It will send professional procurement teams to foreign trade companies and directly purchase their high-quality products.

The Beijing-based company said it will establish a special area on its online marketplaces to sell selected goods and provide data traffic and omni-channel marketing support for them. It will also provide training, step up subsidies and offer other resources and support for exporters to quickly boost domestic sales.

Alibaba Group's online marketplaces Taobao and Tmall said on Tuesday that it will provide assistance to at least 10,000 Chinese companies involved in foreign trade and promote domestic sales of 100,000 foreign trade goods, helping exporters shift their focus to the domestic market. Detailed measures include simplified registration, commission incentives, localized sales guidance and direct procurement services.

Chinese online discounter PDD Holdings has rolled out plans to invest 100 billion yuan over the next three years, including stepping up subsidy support for small and medium-sized enterprises engaged in cross-border e-commerce to stabilize their production and help them cope with external challenges in overseas expansion.

Zhuang Shuai, founder of Bailian Consulting and an expert in e-commerce and retail, said, "The increased US tariffs have raised export costs for Chinese enterprises and forced them to seek out new channels to expand sales."

These relief measures will help foreign trade companies tide over difficulties in the short term, while in the long run, they will be conducive to cultivate a new consumption ecosystem as the deep integration of foreign trade enterprises with the domestic consumption market may nurture more homegrown brands with international competitiveness, he added.

Freshippo, Alibaba Group's grocery and fresh goods retail chain, announced similar supportive measures for Chinese exporters. The platform said it has opened a fast-track path for exporters to explore the domestic market, and set up a special zone on its platform where products from these companies will be sold.

Liu Junbin, a special researcher at the Internet Economy Institute, a domestic consultancy, said such efforts to support foreign trade enterprises will provide a boost to domestic consumption and provide shoppers with a more diverse range of high-quality products to meet their expanding needs in pursuit of a better life.

Moreover, against the backdrop new US tariffs from the Trump administration, Chinese cross-border e-commerce app DHgate is gaining increasing traction among US consumers, and has secured the second spot on the free app download charts in the US Apple App Store, just behind OpenAI's ChatGPT.

Industry insiders attribute DHgate's sudden popularity in the US to Chinese suppliers and manufacturers using short-video platform TikTok to educate US consumers on the global luxury goods market. Many products, such as clothing, handbags, and accessories that are assumed to be European-made, originate from factories in China. Shoppers can now buy these products directly from Chinese suppliers via cross-border e-commerce platforms like DHgate, they added.