So hot! Cross-border e-commerce has been hotly discussed at the two sessions for 10 consecutive years

Cross-border e-commerce is flourishing everywhere!

Under the general trend of economic globalization and rapid development of e-commerce, the cross-border e-commerce export industry is still on the track of vigorous development. With favorable factors such as policy support and unique supply chain advantages, cross-border e-commerce in various parts of China is developing rapidly, and the scale of cross-border e-commerce transactions has been rising year by year.

Cross-border e-commerce has been hotly discussed at the two sessions for 10 consecutive years

During this year's "Two Sessions", cross-border e-commerce was once again a hot topic.

The government work report released on March 5, 2023 pointed out that over the past five years, my country has firmly expanded its opening up to the outside world and deepened mutually beneficial and win-win international economic and trade cooperation. It has promoted steady growth in imports and exports. It has increased policy support such as export tax rebates, developed new foreign trade formats, established 152 new cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones, and supported the construction of a number of overseas warehouses.

Next, we will accelerate the construction of a modern industrial system, speed up the digital transformation of traditional industries and small and medium-sized enterprises, vigorously develop the digital economy, and continue to play the supporting role of imports and exports in the economy.

This is the tenth consecutive year that cross-border e-commerce has been mentioned at the Two Sessions since the term "cross-border e-commerce" was first mentioned in the Government Work Report in 2014.

From the perspective of domestic policy support, China has continued to increase its support for cross-border e-commerce in recent years. For example, the Ministry of Finance, the General Administration of Customs, and the State Administration of Taxation recently jointly issued an announcement stating that within one year from the date of publication of the announcement, if the export is declared under the cross-border e-commerce customs supervision code (1210, 9610, 9710, 9810), and the goods (excluding food) are returned to the country in their original condition within six months from the date of export due to poor sales or returns, they can be returned to the country with "zero tax burden".

At the same time, all parts of the country are also actively supporting the development of cross-border e-commerce. Take Hangzhou and Chongqing as examples:

Hangzhou recently said it would encourage enterprises to build independent websites and promote Chinese brands to go global. Enterprises that use independent websites to conduct cross-border e-commerce export business will be given a one-time financial support of no more than 2 million yuan. Service providers that serve more than 50 cross-border e-commerce companies and whose service revenue is no less than 10 million yuan and whose service revenue growth rate in the year of fund application is no less than 15% will be given a one-time financial support of no more than 1 million yuan.

Chongqing also stated that it will deploy 17 specific measures in five aspects, including supporting foreign trade to stabilize scale and optimize structure, promoting foreign investment to stabilize stock and expand quantity, promoting financial foreign exchange services to optimize supply and improve quality and efficiency, further expanding the use of cross-border RMB, and maintaining the bottom line of risk , to further promote cross-border trade and investment and financing facilitation, and serve high-level opening up to the outside world and the construction of an inland open highland.

Cross-border e-commerce in various provinces and cities will develop rapidly in 2022

Once upon a time, cross-border e-commerce was only known to a small group of people. As its wealth-making myths continued to spread, cross-border e-commerce in various provinces and cities developed rapidly in 2022.

Data from the Guangdong Provincial Department of Commerce show that from 2015 to 2022, Guangdong's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports increased from 14.8 billion yuan to 645.4 billion yuan, a nearly 43-fold increase, with an average annual growth rate of 72%, accounting for 31% of the national total. In 2022, Shenzhen's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports are expected to exceed 180 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of more than 2.3 times, an increase of about 130 billion yuan compared to 2021. From 2017 to 2022, Dongguan's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports increased from 15.9 billion yuan to 81.862 billion yuan, an average annual growth of 38%.

In 2022, Henan's cross-border e-commerce import and export transaction volume exceeded 220.9 billion yuan (RMB), a year-on-year increase of 9.5% , and exports reached 170.06 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.3%. It is worth noting that the growth trend continued this year. In the first two months of 2023, the total value of foreign trade imports and exports in the province reached 154.1 billion yuan, an increase of 15.2% over the same period in 2022, ranking 8th in the country and 1st in the central and western regions.

Data from the Sichuan Provincial Department of Commerce show that in 2022, the province's cross-border e-commerce transaction volume was 95.03 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 35.6%. Among the transaction volumes in the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones, Mianyang had the largest increase of 133.1% compared to the previous year. In January 2023, the province's cross-border e-commerce transaction volume was 9.14 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 78.1%, of which exports were 8.53 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 72.5%.

In 2022, Hefei's cross-border e-commerce transaction volume reached 19.625 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 50.9%. From 2017 to 2022, Hefei's cross-border e-commerce transaction volume increased 25 times, with an average increase of 192.5%.

In 2022, Hangzhou's import and export value reached 756.48 billion yuan, and the scale of foreign trade hit a new historical high, accounting for 16.2% of Zhejiang Province's total import and export value. Among them, exports reached 514.06 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.6%, breaking the 500 billion yuan mark for the first time. Data shows that there are 832 cross-border e-commerce brand companies with a scale of more than 20 million yuan in Hangzhou, and the number of registered trademarks of cross-border e-commerce companies is 4,371.

In 2022, Qingdao's cross-border e-commerce import and export volume reached 62.7 billion yuan, doubling its growth, accounting for 6.9% of the city's foreign trade imports and exports, 2 percentage points higher than the national average. The total volume ranked first in Shandong Province, accounting for 20% of Shandong Province's total cross-border e-commerce imports and exports, and the growth rate was 8 percentage points higher than the province.

In 2022, cross-border e-commerce exports at Shanghai Port continued its rapid development momentum, with annual export declarations reaching 152 million, a year-on-year increase of 58%, and the total number of declarations jumping to third place among ports nationwide; the total export amount reached 38.91 billion yuan, a 2.8-fold increase year-on-year.

Global cross-border e-commerce still has great development prospects

Cross-border e-commerce is developing rapidly in all provinces and cities across the country, and the number of related companies is also increasing year by year.

According to Qichacha data, there are 14,700 cross-border e-commerce related companies in China . In 2020, 3,201 new cross-border e-commerce related companies were added. In 2021, 4,789 new companies were added. In 2022, 4,061 new companies were added. Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Qingdao and other cities are among the top cross-border e-commerce companies. The vast development prospects of cross-border e-commerce in the world have prompted newcomers to join this industry continuously.

Under the general trend of economic globalization and rapid development of e-commerce, cross-border online shopping demand in the global market is continuously being released. It is estimated that by 2025, global online sales will increase to US$7.39 trillion.

From the perspective of market regions, mature retail e-commerce markets with high penetration rates such as the United States and Europe are still the main target markets for the cross-border e-commerce retail export industry. At the same time, there are large gaps in the demand side of cross-border e-commerce exports in countries and regions along the Belt and Road, such as Southeast Asia, India, Russia, and Central and Eastern Europe, which are still blue ocean markets to be developed and expanded.

With the unique advantages of China's manufacturing industry and supply chain, the support of various positive national policies, the continuous improvement of cross-border export industry clusters in various regions, and the continuous joining of outstanding talents, I believe that cross-border e-commerce will create more miracles in the future.