Alibaba International Station 2021 Foreign Trade Trend Release: From Scale to High-quality Development

In the first quarter of this year, China's foreign trade maintained a restorative growth. According to the data from the General Administration of Customs, my country's exports in the first quarter reached 4.6 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 38.7%. As an emerging trade format, cross-border e-commerce continued the good development trend of last year, with exports increasing by 69.3% year-on-year, becoming one of the main forces for the steady growth of foreign trade.

On April 22, Alibaba International Station announced its foreign trade trends and digital overseas strategy for 2021. Zhang Kuo, vice president of Alibaba Group and general manager of Alibaba International Station, said that during the epidemic, the global e-commerce penetration rate has increased significantly, and the trend of online procurement is irreversible. As China's structural position in the world continues to increase, the dividends of cross-border e-commerce overseas are still there, which is a new opportunity for Chinese manufacturing to go overseas with high quality through branding.

"The next three years will still be the golden period of development for cross-border e-commerce B2B. The International Station will use digital innovation to enable every merchant willing to participate in foreign trade to improve the quality and efficiency of going overseas at a lower cost; through the growth of quality buyers, quality supply, and full-link digital services, it will help merchants to brand their overseas business and enhance their international competitiveness." Zhang Kuo said.

Zhang Kuo, Vice President of Alibaba Group and General Manager of Alibaba International Station, released the foreign trade development trends in 2021

Based on this, Alibaba International Station divides the brands of all merchants on the site into own brands, manufacturing brands and trading brands. By building a brand power evaluation system, it helps them sort out the core positioning of the brand, and through technology, algorithms, new business forms such as social networking, it accurately matches overseas buyers, allowing Chinese factories and Chinese brands to be seen by the world.

The platform will start with the growth of quality buyers, and carry out national tiered operations for 17 countries in key regions such as the United States, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea, focusing on strengthening distributors and retail e-commerce groups. Through digital communication methods such as live broadcasts and short videos, the platform will improve the sourcing experience of buyers far away from home, while providing localized circle services for decentralized online retailers to expand and improve the types and quality of overseas buyers. Zhang Kuo said that through refined operations on the buyer side by country and type, the international station is expected to double the number of buyers within a year.

For every natural person who wants to participate in trade, the International Station will start with company registration and provide a series of supporting services to lower the entry threshold. For merchants with certain basic capabilities, the International Station will reduce operating costs through diversified services of ground forces and professional guidance in the industry. For merchants with strong brand needs, the International Station will create a "Super Star Label" IP and plans to support 1,000 super brands throughout the year.

Huasheng Shuanglang is one of the manufacturing brands in the first batch of "super star brands". As a domestic fabric manufacturer, Huasheng Shuanglang has always insisted on making high-end antibacterial and deodorizing materials. In the past trade, it has long faced a problem, that is, its independent research and development and manufacturing capabilities are not recognized, new buyers do not trust it, and old buyers would rather change the patent holder to a supplier in other countries who does not have research and development capabilities. In March of this year, the platform built an exclusive display scene for merchants' stores to intuitively present technical strength and cooperation cases. Merchants displayed the laboratory observation of fabric sterilization scenes through live broadcasts, and many buyers directly initiated inquiries.

In addition, the International Station also provides merchants with a full range of digital upgrade services in all aspects of cross-border trade, such as logistics, capital flow, customs, customer management, and marketing. In March this year, the International Station officially launched the regular operation of China-US charter flights to provide merchants with deterministic fulfillment services. It is reported that regular operation is the first step of the International Station in the global air transport capacity layout, and in the future it will also expand routes to countries and regions such as China-Europe and China-Southeast Asia. This year's focus is to build a localized, industry-based, and nationalized fulfillment logistics network.

"Digital innovation will make the originally complex and tedious cross-border fulfillment simple, efficient and inclusive." Zhang Kuo said that the full-factor diversified services provided by the international station will allow merchants to obtain what they need, truly realize the transformation from scale to high quality, enhance the brand premium of Chinese manufacturing, and help upgrade China's foreign trade industry chain and value chain.

Alibaba International Station