Cross-border e-commerce industry

After four years of development, Hangzhou's cross-border e-commerce exports have been experiencing explosive growth. New foreign trade companies and manufacturing enterprises keep springing up and local cross-border e-commerce sellers and enterprises continue to gather momentum.

The number of foreign trade and manufacturing enterprises engaged in cross-border e-commerce in Hangzhou has increased from 8,000 in 2016 to more than 12,000 in 2018, according to the latest statistics from the Hangzhou Comprehensive Test Office. Cross-border e-commerce has become the most popular path taken by local enterprises to transform and upgrade their businesses.

Alibaba Group, the biggest e-commerce enterprise in China, announced its "big import plan" for the next five years in which Alibaba will gather the winds of the digital economy to achieve a global import of $200 billion over the next five years. Major companies such as Netease Koala and Yunji have also publicized their future business layouts in the e-commerce sector.

Local companies seized the opportunity of the first China International Import Expo held in Hangzhou in 2018 to introduce high-quality foreign products to China via the digital trading platform to meet domestic needs for imported goods.

The sales volume achieved by Tmall International, a major e-commerce platform, before the Double Eleven in 2017 exceeded the total turnover of the e-commerce carnival. Moreover, Tmall International's 24-hour cumulative transaction bonded orders accounted for nearly 80 percent of the total number of orders booked in one day.

The growth of cross-border e-commerce imports in Hangzhou is fueled by e-commerce giants such as Alibaba and Netease, as well as newly started enterprises such as Yunji and Beibei. New business patterns explored by those new companies are helping to tackle the difficulties and obstacles encountered in the development of e-commerce.

Yunji, for instance, blazed a new trail in the integration of social media and e-commerce. By building a social media platform that is based on individual credibility, it manages to distribute imported products to rural areas.

The company achieved a sales volume of 2.6 billion yuan ($387 million) in 2016. "The number may pale into insignificance compared to those e-commerce giants, but for young companies, such a growth rate highlights the huge potential lying ahead of the e-commerce industry," said Xiao Shanglue, CEO of Yunji.

The Hangzhou Comprehensive Test Zone, focusing on home textiles, hardware tools and home sanitary wares, has launched a series of measures in customs clearance and tax rebates, training of corporate leaders, and docking of service resources. Several local enterprises have been driven by the support of the government and become “big sellers” with annual sales exceeding $10 million. To this point, Hangzhou has cultivated nearly 100 “big sellers” cross-border e-commerce companies.

In addition to attracting high-quality cross-border e-commerce companies, Hangzhou is also actively exploring international opportunities. In Brazil, the Xiaoshan Cross-border Industrial Park Development Zone has worked with B2Brazil, the largest B2B trading website in the country, to establish a localized service center in São Paulo, and to obtain information about market demand through the online platform. The service center provides one-stop services for enterprises to complete transactions after the online business contact.