E-commerce industry

In recent years, an increasing number of Xinjiang e-commerce applications have progressed to network sales. The sales platforms include Taobao, JD.com, Suning, Meituan, Ctrip and WeChat, as well as various self-built and self-operated platforms. And the products sold online cover a wide range of commodities, including fruits, vegetables, flour and quilts, among which household products enjoy great popularity with domestic customers.

According to the Statistics Bureau of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, in 2018 Xinjiang enterprises achieved online retail sales of 15.97 billion yuan ($2.3 billion), a year-on-year increase of 44.8 percent.

The first regional cross-border e-commerce pilot industrial park was established in the region in 2019. The park aims to provide comprehensive services to the whole industrial chain, bringing together various types of enterprises such as manufacturing, e-commerce platforms, warehousing and logistics companies and financial credit insurance companies.

Xinjiang is dedicated to the integration and development of the cross-border e-commerce and manufacturing industry by guiding it toward scale operation, cluster development and standardized management.

"Cross-border e-commerce is one of the new forms of foreign trade in our region,” said Liu Bo, director of the Department of Foreign Trade, Commerce Department of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region. “We hope to achieve industrial agglomeration through the pilot park and promote the development of the cross-border e-commerce industry in Xinjiang."

Chinese internet giant Alibaba has also been helping impoverished villages sell agricultural products over the past few years, with Xinjiang a major beneficiary, according to the latest data released by the company.

Data showed around 90 billion yuan ($13.6 billion) of agricultural products from 832 poverty-stricken villages across the country were sold through its online platforms between 2015 and 2017.

In 2016, Alibaba's online retail platform, Taobao, and a Shanghai team assisting Xinjiang helped Bachu county to improve the quality of local melons. Last year, 100,000 melons were sold online.

The average annual income of local melon farmers increased from 400 yuan to 3,500 yuan, according to the data. During a 12-hour online shopping spree in November 2017, more than 100,000 customers bought 850 tonnes of apples produced in Xinjiang's Aksu prefecture.

Data shows that between July 2015 and June 2018, over 55 million consumers bought 1.5 billion items from hundreds of poor counties via Alibaba's online platforms.