Recently, from the shopping carnivals such as "Double 11" and "Double 12" in China, to the "Black Friday" and Christmas and New Year shopping seasons in Western countries, a global shopping carnival in the last two months of 2023 has triggered a shopping boom in countries around the world. As e-commerce platforms around the world are launching new preferential policies to attract consumers to shop, China's e-commerce is showing its capabilities and emerging in the international e-commerce market, which has attracted widespread attention from the international community. E-commerce platforms such as Shein, Temu and AliExpress are increasingly favored by international consumers.
The picture shows an ocean-going ship sailing out of Lianyungang Port in Jiangsu. Source: Xinhua News Agency
On September 5, during the 2023 CIFTIS, the "Digital Trade Development and Cooperation Report 2023" jointly released by the Foreign Economic Research Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council and the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology showed that China's e-commerce transaction volume ranked first in the world in 2022, accounting for 37.2% of the world's total. The U.S. ranks second in the world in terms of B2C e-commerce transaction volume, accounting for 24.4% of the world's total.
In recent years, China's e-commerce is accelerating its development, not only triggering heavyweight changes in shopping in China, but also accelerating "going overseas", triggering changes and upgrades in the global e-commerce market. With China's continuous efforts to build factories overseas, China's consumer goods are being sent to many corners of the world, and China's cross-border e-commerce trading partners have covered the world, and have become one of the countries with the most complete cross-border e-commerce ecological chain in the world.
Among the multiple e-commerce platforms, China's Shein, Temu and other platforms have become popular brands in many countries including the Americas, Europe, Asia and other regions. During the pandemic, consumers in countries such as the United States and South Korea have been buying more and more goods from Chinese e-commerce platforms. The growing international demand not only provides support for Chinese e-commerce brands and logistics companies, but also drives the development of international consumer demand.
According to media reports, Shein and Temu have become the two fastest-growing shopping platforms in the U.S. market. Temu is currently the 4th most visited retail website in United States. According to a survey Data.ai by data research firm, Temu has more than 61 million monthly active users in the United States in about a year from its launch to September 2023, covering 48 countries around the world. Shein, another Chinese cross-border e-commerce platform, surpassed Amazon in the ranking of global shopping app downloads in the first three quarters of 2023, ranking first in the world, and its service targets have expanded to more than 150 countries and regions, becoming a well-known fast fashion brand in the world.
Of course, Shein and Temu are just a microcosm of the rapid development of China's cross-border e-commerce. More and more e-commerce platforms, including Alibaba and JD.com, are speeding up their overseas layout. China's e-commerce market will continue to grow and occupy an important place in the global e-commerce landscape, supported by the rising preference of consumers for online shopping, the implementation of various government support policies, the improvement of payment infrastructure and the popularization of payment tools.
The China Pavilion in the 2nd Global Digital Trade Expo Complex photographed on November 23, 2023. Source: Xinhua News Agency
China's e-commerce market will grow at a rapid rate of 9.9% this year, with online retail sales expected to reach 15.2 trillion yuan, about 1.4 trillion yuan higher than the 13.8 trillion yuan in 2022, according to forecasts by data analytics and consulting firm GlobalData.
During the pandemic, many cautious consumers began to use online channels more and more to make purchases due to multiple factors such as inconvenient travel, and e-commerce was able to maintain its development trend during the epidemic. With the improvement of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, many international consumers have retained this shopping Xi habit and have begun to adopt online shopping methods more and more. Chinese e-commerce platforms have attracted a large number of international consumers with their attractive discounts, rich and diverse product categories and convenient and easy-to-use shopping methods.
At the same time, in order to better promote the development of the international e-commerce industry, local governments are actively introducing relevant support policies. In recent years, China has introduced a number of support measures to improve China's logistics infrastructure and even the layout of global infrastructure, and continue to promote the all-round acceleration of cross-border e-commerce in mainland China. Relevant measures of China's relevant departments to optimize the supervision mode of cross-border e-commerce export overseas warehouses, promote cross-border e-commerce retail import return central warehouses and B2B export supervision models have been continuously introduced to escort the development of cross-border e-commerce.
At present, China has approved the establishment of 165 cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones, with more than 100,000 cross-border e-commerce entities, covering 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. As of October this year, the new international land-sea trade corridor has covered 139 logistics stations in 69 cities in 18 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China, and 480 ports in 120 countries and regions around the world. At the same time, in order to reduce the cost of export return of cross-border e-commerce enterprises, on February 1, the Ministry of Finance and other relevant departments jointly issued the "Announcement on the Tax Policy for Cross-border E-commerce Export Return Goods" to further promote cross-border e-commerce enterprises to accelerate their integration into the international market.
Sorting robots perform parcel sorting at Henan Bonded Logistics Center (photo taken on January 14, 2019). Source: Xinhua News Agency
In addition to this, with the increasing penetration of the internet and smartphones, the continuous expansion of logistics infrastructure, and the increase in alternative payment solutions such as Alipay and WeChat Pay, the Chinese e-commerce market is becoming more and more popular in e-commerce around the world. While many e-commerce platforms in China are going overseas, they are also constantly improving payment methods to provide shoppers with a better shopping experience. At the same time, China's e-commerce platforms are committed to dredging the difficulties of logistics, continuously shortening the shipping time, achieving weekly delivery or even 5 days, and meeting the timely requirements of some consumers for goods.
One bright spot is that live shopping has become a new trend in China. Through live shopping, more and more consumers can watch and buy products online through e-commerce platforms. Live shopping in China has managed to attract more and more overseas shoppers, providing consumers with a more immersive shopping experience and being able to better understand the details of the products to reassure them. On the one hand, live shopping has driven the sales channels of Chinese goods, and on the other hand, more and more international brands have begun to join live streaming, expanding the influence and popularity of Chinese e-commerce platforms.
More and more brands, internationally renowned enterprises and industries have begun to integrate into the international market to participate in international competition, and China will no longer be just the "world's factory", it has become a "world shopping center", "global supply chain center" and other centers. With the improvement of the competitiveness and voice of many well-known e-commerce platforms such as Temu, Shein, and Alibaba in the global market, China's e-commerce platforms are reshaping global e-commerce and leading the high-quality development of global e-commerce.
Jiupai News reporter Mu Yang
[Source: Jiupai News]
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author, if there is a source error or infringement of your legitimate rights and interests, you can contact us by email, we will deal with it in a timely manner. E-mail address: [email protected]