2024-08-30 11:13:28
Foreign foods, cosmetics and health care products have entered Chinese homes while correspondingly Chinese-made clothes, shoes, hats and daily necessities are now sold around the world. China’s cross-border e-commerce is growing rapidly thanks to the advantages offered by electronic transactions, contactless deliveries and short transaction chains. According to recent data released by China’s General Administration of Customs, in the first half of the year, the country’s cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 1.22 trillion yuan. yuan, registering an annual increase of 10.5%. This increase exceeds by 4.4 percentage points the total growth rate of foreign trade for the same period.
China’s cross-border e-commerce grew by 1.2 times in 5 years, from 1.06 trillion. in 2018 to 2.38 trillion yuan in 2023.
“The General Administration of Customs inspects more than 7 billion parcels and courier shipments of cross-border e-commerce, which is an average of about 20 million parcels per day,” said director of the Administration’s Statistics Analysis Department, Lu Daliang. According to him, cross-border e-commerce is a new driving force for the development of both China’s foreign trade and global trade.
Since 2014 and for 11 consecutive years, cross-border e-commerce has been included in the Chinese government’s work reports. The latter has established 165 integrated pilot zones for this type of trade covering 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, improved and expanded the positive list of cross-border electronic retail imports, and continues to improve relevant customs clearance supervision procedures. A number of policy measures are enabling cross-border e-commerce to flourish.
According to the data, today at the national level there are over 120,000 entities active in cross-border e-commerce. These enterprises boldly explore opportunities and innovate, spreading their network to various cities in China where they find high-quality goods. At the same time, they increase their investments in research and development with the aim of strengthening the competitiveness of their products and the prestige of their brands that will allow them to stand out in international markets. Take for example Temu, an e-commerce platform by Pinduoduo. Since its launch in September 2022, it has leveraged more than 100 industrial production zones in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shandong, Anhui and other places, effectively connecting external demand with domestic supply, simplifying export processes and improving quality of the services provided. As of early 2024, Temu’s mobile app has hundreds of millions of visitors and is used in over 70 countries and regions around the world.
In order to improve the efficiency of its logistics chains, China is constantly upgrading the applied technology, models, product inspection and other procedures. The solutions offered by customs warehouses, overseas warehouses and digital customs clearance processes contribute to the unhindered flow of goods to consumers. Therefore, today it is no longer a distant dream to place an order and receive your products the next day. For goods sent to overseas warehouses or sorting warehouses, overseas orders can be processed within 7 days.
“We will continue to improve the functions of the customs service system for cross-border e-commerce, further simplify procedures and upgrade services to better meet the needs of consumers and businesses,” said Lu Daliang.