China remains world’s largest B2C cross-border e-commerce market

China is the world’s largest business to customer (B2C) cross-border e-commerce market, and continues to see broad prospects for cross-border e-commerce.

A staff member works at the factory of a clothing company in Yuping Dong Autonomous County in southwest China's Guizhou province. Clothing factories in the county have seen peak production and sales recently, as they now sell their products to more than 30 countries and regions around the world. (Photo/ Hu Panxue)

According to statistics provided by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, China became the world’s largest economy in terms of B2C cross-border e-commerce in 2018, followed by the U.S. The two countries together accounted for nearly half of the total sales volume in the global sector.

About 26 percent of global B2C transactions took place in the Chinese mainland, followed by the U.S. which had 21 percent, according to statistics from online payments giant Paypal.

B2C cross-border e-commerce has become an important force stabilizing China’s foreign trade. Last year, China's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 1.69 trillion yuan (about 260.9 billion U.S. dollars), up 31.1 percent year on year.

Medical materials for epidemic prevention and control, small home appliances, electronic products and toys became popular products on cross-border e-commerce platforms. According to AliExpress, a global online retail marketplace and part of Alibaba Group, sales of home appliances and household products both increased by more than 50 percent.

A survey by AliExpress indicated that the best-selling products on cross-border e-commerce platforms are clothing, shoes, electronic products and toys, and most consumers like to buy products with high added value, such as artworks.

Mould King, a company based in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong that produces and exports toys, built a profitable business online last year after shifting its focus to cross-border e-commerce to offset the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic.

Consumers shop at a duty-free shop in east China’s Jiangxi province. The store opened in the first half of the year and all the goods it sells were transported by the China-Europe freight train service. (Photo/Hu Guolin)

An executive of the company disclosed that during the “Double 11” shopping spree last year, the number of orders for toys received by the company increased by 100 percent. The products are of high quality and their prices are 85 percent to 90 percent lower than global brands.

Over the past year, the global consumer market has moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and with foreign manufacturing badly hurt by the pandemic, goods made in China have risen to become a mainstay in the global consumer market, said Wang Mingqiang, general manager of AliExpress.

E-commerce also provides a channel for medium- and small- sized companies to reach overseas customers more easily. Unlike the traditional mode of foreign trade, which involves various parties such as traders, foreign buyers, distributors at various levels, and retailers, e-commerce connects the manufacturers with the consumers directly, bringing more profits to the manufacturers and benefits to the customers.

China has rolled out a basket of policies to support, regulate and guide cross-border e-commerce. “The policy support has helped create a stable environment for enterprises to grow and greatly boosted their confidence,” said Li Mingtao, vice president of a research institute affiliated to the China E-commerce Research Center (CECRC).