Cross-border online sales picking up steam

Many Chinese consumers find themselves shut out of the shopping spree because of the language barrier, which has inspired e-commerce companies to step into the breach.

According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, there are more than 200,000 enterprises in China offering cross-border e-commerce service through various platforms.

The big e-commerce players in China are fast grabbing territory in this emerging market, said Cavender.

In February 2014, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group announced the official launch of Tmall Global, a site designed to give Chinese online shoppers a platform to buy foreign-branded products directly.

"Tmall Global plans to develop the emerging cross-border e-commerce mode into a mainstream purchasing habit of Chinese people in the next five years," said Wu Qian, general manager of Alibaba's cross-border B2C (business-to-customer) department.

Tmall Global boasts many advantages. It has 300 million customers and many years' experience operating Taobao.com, China's largest online retail portal, which is also affiliated with Alibaba.

"The brands or products we decide to launch on Tmall Global are based on our monitoring of our customers' purchasing habits and data through Taobao over the years," said Wu.

Amazon.cn, the Chinese branch of the American e-commerce group, launched Amazon Global Store in November 2014 so Chinese customers could buy the same products in China as others using the US version of its website.

It was launched less than three months after the company signed an MOU with the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone and Shanghai Information Investment Ltd.

The deal is expected to help expand the online retail giant's China business under the special zone's favorable policies, such as lower shipping costs and shorter freighting times.

Amazon China is quietly confident about its wide selection of products and cross-border shipping network.

Within just five months, Amazon Global Store now offers 1.7 million products across borders, 20 times the number when it launched on Nov 11 last year.

"We see increasing demand from domestic consumers to buy international products tailored to their purchasing habits, and that is why we've quickly expanded our selection of products," said Niu.

In mid-April, China's second-largest e-commerce player JD.com launched its cross-border e-commerce platform, JD Worldwide.

Despite its latecomer status, JD.com is actively using China's free trade zones and bonded areas to help connect international brands with Chinese consumers while reducing costs and increasing speed, it said.

"The resources JD.com brings in terms of logistics support and marketing expertise will help foreign brands succeed on our site," said Leo Li, its vice-president.

Products that go through the FTZs or bonded areas will be delivered by JD.com's last-mile delivery team, while dedicated staff will tailor marketing campaigns to help foreign brands get good visibility.

Cross-border e-commerce accounted for 14.8 percent of China's total foreign trade by volume in 2014, according to iResearch, which forecasts the annual growth rate of the market in China will stand at 26 percent per annum until 2017.