The Think Tank for China and Globalization released a report: AliExpress provides "light asset" overseas expansion opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises

Recently, the Center for China and Globalization ( CCG) released the "B2C Cross-border E-commerce Platform Overseas Research Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"), stating that in the new international landscape in the post-epidemic era, China's supply-side advantages will be further highlighted, and the influence of Chinese manufacturing and Chinese brands will be greatly enhanced ; overseas online consumption habits will be further strengthened, and cross-border retail e-commerce represented by AliExpress will usher in a golden period of rapid growth.

The year 2020 that just passed was an extremely special year. The COVID-19 pandemic that swept the world had a profound impact on the economies of countries around the world. Under the epidemic, the manufacturing industry in many overseas countries has stagnated, and the overseas consumer market has begun to rely more on Chinese manufacturing. According to data released by the General Administration of Customs, China's import and export scale hit a record high in 2020 , with a total export value of 17.93 trillion yuan, an increase of 4% compared with 2019 .

As an important channel for Chinese manufacturing to go overseas, cross-border retail e-commerce also ushered in new opportunities in 2020. Under the influence of the epidemic, the offline consumer markets in many countries overseas have been impacted, and consumer habits have shown a clear trend of "offline to online". Rich categories, high-quality and low-priced goods, and convenient and fast shopping experience have made "Chinese-style online shopping" more and more popular in overseas markets, and overseas consumers' online consumption habits have become increasingly stable.

The report shows that the global cross-border retail e-commerce market size was US$675 billion in 2018. According to the Blue Book of Cross-border E-commerce: China Cross-border E-commerce Development Report ( 2020) , the global cross-border e-commerce transaction size is expected to exceed US$2 trillion in 2020 , and the cross-border retail market is far from reaching the limit of incremental space. A survey of European and American consumers showed that nearly 43.2% of the respondents said they would shop online more in the future, which also shows the huge room for expansion of cross-border retail e-commerce.

AliExpress's performance in developed countries confirms this trend. Recently, Smartme Analytics, an authoritative data analysis company , released an analysis report on Spanish shopping apps in the first quarter of 2021. The report shows that AliExpress surpassed Amazon with 62.5% of downloads, becoming the most popular shopping app in Spain. At the same time, AliExpress is also the app with the largest increase in downloads, with a year-on-year increase of 7.8 % . The latest data statistics from AppAnnie , a mobile data analysis platform , also show that AliExpress APP downloads in the Spanish and French markets rank first among shopping apps. AliExpress ranks second in MAU (monthly active users) in Spain , and the distance from the first place Amazon is gradually narrowing. France's MAU surpassed Wish in February 2021 and rose to second place.

While the huge potential of overseas markets is yet to be explored, supply-side upgrades have become the core of the changes in cross-border e-commerce platforms this year. "It's a good time to build a brand for Made in China," said Wang Mingqiang, general manager of AliExpress. Let the world see Chinese brands and let Made in China come to the fore, which is the focus of AliExpress's efforts on the supply side this year.

AliExpress relies on the digital capabilities of the Alibaba Group to optimize the supply-side structure and accurately match overseas demand and domestic supply chain ; in terms of technology, AliExpress has joined hands with the DAMO Academy to upgrade AI intelligent translation technology, making "one-click broadcasting" possible for the world; in terms of logistics, AliExpress continues to improve the local + cross-border, international logistics and freight system from light and small items to oversized items, providing foreign trade companies with deterministic logistics fulfillment capabilities for all categories and the entire chain.

The report also affirmed the positive role of cross-border retail e-commerce platforms in promoting the overseas expansion of small and medium-sized enterprises: " Cross-border retail e-commerce transactions have compressed trade links, reduced corporate transaction costs, and provided small and medium-sized enterprises with 'light asset' overseas expansion opportunities. "

The reason why cross-border retail e-commerce platforms can help small and medium-sized enterprises reduce costs and increase efficiency when going overseas is inseparable from the construction of comprehensive infrastructure such as logistics, payment, technology, and digitalization. AliExpress has continued to invest in infrastructure construction in the 11 years since its establishment . With the continuous improvement and upgrading of the platform's various infrastructure capabilities, today's AliExpress can provide merchants with "quasi-localized" deterministic services.

Relying on the various infrastructures of AliExpress, merchants can enjoy a service experience that is almost the same as local sales when selling Chinese-made products with a wide variety, high quality and low prices to the world, gaining greater competitiveness in the international market.

The full report is available at: http://www.ccg.org.cn/archives/63453

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