China Xiaokang Network Exclusive article
Wen | "Xiaokang" · China Xiaokang Network reporter Yu Jingyuan
The rural e-commerce market is a market full of opportunities and challenges. The government, platforms and farmers need to work together to promote the healthy development of the rural e-commerce market and inject new impetus into the development of China's rural economy.
Recently, the Ministry of Commerce, together with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the State Post Bureau, the Supply and Marketing Cooperatives and other units, jointly issued the "Three-Year Action Plan for County Commerce (2023-2025)", proposing to promote the high-quality development of rural e-commerce, vigorously develop rural live streaming e-commerce, cultivate "native products" e-commerce brands, and encourage rural e-commerce entrepreneurship and employment. It is important to note that the document mentions the term "e-commerce" as many as 21 times. In answering the document, the Ministry of Commerce also emphasized that it will focus on comprehensively promoting rural revitalization, promoting rural e-commerce as an important part of county commerce, and promoting the high-quality development of rural e-commerce.
It is not difficult to imagine that in the future, more and more "mountain goods" and "products" will be sold through e-commerce platforms, thereby boosting rural economic development, increasing farmers' employment and income, and a series of chain reactions will become more and more common.
The rapid rise of rural e-commerce
The four words of "rural e-commerce" are becoming more and more eye-catching in the era of "Internet +". Rural e-commerce is an important content of "Internet +" modern agriculture and an important means to transform the way of agricultural development.
The development of the rural e-commerce market is inseparable from the support and promotion of the government. In 2014, the government put forward the "Internet +" strategy, including the important content of "rural e-commerce", and introduced a series of support policies, including financial support, tax incentives, logistics support, etc., providing a strong guarantee for the development of rural e-commerce.
Chen Daizhang, general manager of Slow City Farm in Eryuan County, Yunnan, is conducting live streaming to sell the products of phoenix feathers. Photo courtesy of Interviewee
With the continuous development of China's rural e-commerce market, more and more farmers have begun to sell their agricultural products through e-commerce platforms, and more and more urban consumers have begun to buy agricultural products on rural e-commerce platforms.
In recent years, rural e-commerce has risen rapidly and has become a bright spot in China's economic development. Statistics show that in 2009, there were only 3 "Taobao villages" in the country, and in 2022, the number has reached 7,780. According to statistics, from 2014 to 2022, rural online retail sales increased from 180 billion yuan to 2.17 trillion yuan, an 11-fold expansion. In 2022, the online retail sales of agricultural products nationwide reached 531.38 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.2%, an increase of more than four times over 2014. By the end of 2022, the number of rural Internet users in China exceeded 300 million, and rural online retail sales reached 2.17 trillion yuan; The national online retail sales of agricultural products reached 531.38 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.2%.
It can be seen that in the field of e-commerce, the visibility of agricultural products and farmers' consumers has greatly improved. The digital retail model represented by e-commerce has accelerated its coverage in rural areas, which on the one hand has accelerated the transformation of characteristic agricultural products into a better product structure, and on the other hand, it has driven the transformation of sales to scale effect.
In recent years, relying on Internet infrastructure and transportation improvement to drive circulation efficiency, the national level has been insisting on accelerating the development of rural delivery logistics system, and further facilitating agricultural products to "go out of the village and enter the city" and consumer goods to "go to the countryside to the village". As an important starting point for promoting rural revitalization, increasing farmers' income, and releasing the potential of rural domestic demand, rural logistics is a key link connecting urban and rural production and consumption, and improving the rural logistics and distribution system is an important measure to smooth the domestic circulation, comprehensively promote rural revitalization and promote rural consumption.
At the same time, rural e-commerce platforms are also constantly improving their services. On the one hand, the platform improves the quality and safety of agricultural products through technical means, such as through agricultural product traceability systems, agricultural product quality inspection, etc., to protect the rights and interests of consumers. On the other hand, the platform is also constantly expanding its service scope, such as providing rural tourism, farmhouse and other services, to bring consumers a more comprehensive rural experience.
In the future, the development prospects of the rural e-commerce market are still broad. On the one hand, with the acceleration of urbanization, the demand of urban consumers for agricultural products will continue to increase, and rural e-commerce platforms can provide urban consumers with more convenient and high-quality agricultural product purchase channels. On the other hand, with the continuous development of rural e-commerce platforms, more and more farmers will sell their agricultural products through e-commerce platforms and increase their income levels.
Meet difficulties and challenges
Of course, the rural e-commerce market also faces some challenges. "From planting, production, design to packaging, sales and delivery, the development of rural e-commerce is the development of an industrial chain, and there are many difficulties and challenges." Chen Daizhang, general manager of Slow City Farm in Eryuan County, Yunnan, said.
For example, the problem of logistics and distribution, different regions mainly produce different types of agricultural and sideline products, which have long been constrained by factors such as road transportation and asymmetric market information, and it is difficult to open up sales channels.
"As a member of the e-commerce industry, one of the most concerned issues is the cost of express delivery." Chen Dizhang told the "Xiaokang" magazine and China Xiaokang Network reporter that a very important factor behind building a regional brand is logistics costs. Rural e-commerce needs logistics warehousing, logistics and transportation. The logistics cost is too high, making it difficult for many e-commerce companies to bear, which is a very "grounded" problem encountered in the current development of rural e-commerce. "This level is not very ideal now, and it needs to be further improved in the future."
There is also the problem of traffic, which also needs to be solved by the platform and the government. As a new farmer and veteran rural e-commerce expert, Chen Dizhang has been keeping up with the tide of e-commerce, and he started doing live broadcasts on Douyin in March this year, selling agricultural products. Although the number of fans has accumulated a lot, the situation of live streaming is still not ideal, such as unstable traffic. When there is traffic, the inventory of the product cannot keep up with the flow, and when there is a lot of inventory, there is no flow. "Moreover, a lot of traffic is local, as a rural e-commerce company, what we need is traffic from other regions, which also requires cross-regional cooperation."
At the same time, in order to attract consumers, rural e-commerce platforms need to continuously improve their service levels and improve consumer satisfaction. Improving service levels is inseparable from talents.
"Because logistics, cold storage, transportation, product design, packaging, live broadcasting, etc. need more young people to participate in the entire production process, it is not simply 'do e-commerce can sell agricultural products', agricultural production is a very long system, you must know that basically many agricultural products are only produced once a year, can not grasp time and efficiency, the product will be wasted." Chen Dizhang explained.
In the era of digital economy, e-commerce to help farmers is a new model for rural revitalization and development. However, there is still a large income gap between urban and rural areas, and problems such as the concentration of rural population in cities. Chen Daizhang mentioned that Fengyu, Yunnan, where he is located, has only a handful of young people doing e-commerce.
"In the countryside, left-behind children and the elderly are the most, there are very few young people, and young people in rural areas have gone to the cities to develop, so in the countryside, the lack of talents is also a major problem for the development of rural e-commerce." After all, in terms of live streaming goods, young people are better at this field. ”
On the road of rural e-commerce development, all localities hope that more and more rural young forces will actively participate in the tide of rural revitalization, relying on the advantages of increasingly mature Internet infrastructure and road transportation facilities covering rural areas.
So, to build a county business system, how should e-commerce make the right efforts?
"It can be seen from the "County Business Three-Year Action Plan (2023-2025)" that e-commerce plays an important role in the county business system." Liang Xiaobi, commissioner of Shenzhen Foreign Rights Protection Service Station, told reporters from Xiaokang magazine and China Xiaokang Network. In order to make the county commercial system more perfect and promote the high-quality development of rural e-commerce, she believes that efforts can be made from the following aspects: First, establish a county e-commerce center, provide support such as e-commerce platform construction, logistics distribution, and after-sales service, and help rural e-commerce achieve large-scale operation. Second, increase the training of e-commerce talents, encourage counties with the conditions to build e-commerce majors, provide relevant training and support, and improve the management and operation level of rural e-commerce. Third, give play to the role of e-commerce in brand publicity and marketing, help rural products open up markets, and increase sales and popularity. Fourth, strengthen the construction of the e-commerce environment, provide e-commerce tax preferential policies and financial support, and reduce the operating costs of rural e-commerce.
"Rural e-commerce is an important part of the development of mainland e-commerce, and after years of policy support, rural e-commerce has played a huge role in rural revitalization. Many villages have become characteristic business villages of a certain type of e-commerce through the development of e-commerce. Now remote villages have developed e-commerce, so that agricultural products have entered thousands of households, promoting the development of rural economy. E-commerce has become an important driving force for rural poverty alleviation and prosperity. Recently, several departments have jointly issued documents to promote the development of rural e-commerce, with the aim of promoting the upgrading and transformation of rural e-commerce and providing guarantee for the high-quality development of rural areas. Ma Chunhui, associate professor of economics at Shenzhen University, told reporters from Xiaokang magazine and China Xiaokang Network.
Ma Chunhui said that in order to build an e-commerce system centered on the county and revitalize the countryside, e-commerce should also improve service quality, establish a systematic e-commerce service system, form an e-commerce network with full coverage of county towns and villages, improve the timeliness of commodity circulation, expand express delivery outlets, and cultivate e-commerce talents, which is conducive to the long-term sustainable development of rural e-commerce.
The rural e-commerce market is a market full of opportunities and challenges. The government, platforms and farmers need to work together to promote the healthy development of the rural e-commerce market and inject new impetus into the development of China's rural economy.
("Xiaokang" · China Xiaokang Network exclusive article)
This article appeared in the late September 2023 issue of Xiaokang