From exhibits to goods: cross-border e-commerce boards the “CIIE Express”

Photo taken on Nov. 3, 2020 shows Jinbao, mascot of the China International Import Expo (CIIE) in east China's Shanghai. (Xinhua/Chen Fei)

With international consumer markets seeing sluggish growth due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, foreign brands are looking to the China International Import Expo (CIIE) in search of new opportunities.

At the 3rd edition of the event, e-commerce companies have been boarding the “CIIE express” bound for China, where their products can be added directly to shopping carts from the exhibition stands.

“Since the first CIIE, we have continued to improve our import infrastructure, including logistics, warehousing, supply chains and so on,” said Liu Peng, head of the Import and Export Business Group of Alibaba’s Tmall, as quoted by Chinanews.com, “With this, Alibaba’s import-export businesses have seen sound and rapid growth, helping foreign brands tap the Chinese market more conveniently and efficiently.”

As a digital economy platform, Alibaba has been part of the push to promote inclusive trade and the building of digital trade infrastructures, according to Liu. By speeding up the digital transformation of global business ecosystems, the e-commerce giant has brought Chinese consumers an improved experience in terms of buying global products.

This year, Alibaba will team up with some 1,000 foreign brands to join the third edition of CIIE, where more than 1,400 new products will make their debuts. Since the first CIIE in 2018, more and more exhibits have gone on to become goods available for Chinese consumers to buy.

With a simple touch, consumers can “tour” the entire expo on their phone, buying global products through online platforms like Tmall Global and Kaola before Dubai’s Camelicious, Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty, Ethiopia’s coffee bean take charter planes overnight to rush to their homes.

Shanghai has established a 24/7 “6+365 days” transaction facilitation platform, a highlight of this year’s CIIE, to speed up the process of global products entering the Chinese market.

CIIE Highlights in figures. (People’s Daily Online/Meng Bin)

This year’s CIIE is 14 percent larger than last year in terms of average exhibition size among Fortune Global 500 companies, with its registered visitors topping 400,000, according to the CIIE Bureau.

On November 4, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech via video at the opening ceremony of the third China International Import Expo.

"Our aim is to turn the China market into a market for the world, a market shared by all, and a market accessible to all," said President Xi.