Cross-Border E-commerce As A New Tool to Stabilize

36On November 11, CCPIT Academy released the 2022 China E-commerce Development Trend Report: The Important Role of E-commerce in High-quality Economic Development (hereinafter referred to as the report).China’s e-commerce industry exhibits two new trends The report mentioned that in 2022, China’s e-commerce industry is following two new trends. The first is the rapid development of new models represented by livestreaming e-commerce. Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, livestreaming e-commerce has achieved rapid growth and shopping through livestreaming e-commerce has increasingly become a normal choice for consumers. As policies to control the chaos of livestreaming e-commerce have been implemented, livestreaming e-commerce has shown a rapid development trend in the process of making innovations and upholding traditions. By June 2022, the number of users of China’s livestreaming e-commerce industry reached 469 million, an increase of 204 million from March 2020 and accounting for 44.6% of the total number of netizens. In the first half of 2022, about 27.3% of online consumers would choose traditional e-commerce platforms for shopping, while 49.7% users preferred short-video livestreaming e-commerce. From May 2021 to April 2022, the TikTok platform organized more than 900 livestreaming shows each month, selling more than 10 billion individual products. The transaction volume increased by 220% from the previous year. By March 2022, Taobao livestreaming shows have been watched more than 50 billion times. The second trend is that digital technology has become a new driving force behind consumption upgrading. On the one hand, digital technology breeds new consumption models. The development of new-generation information technology has created new consumption scenarios and brought about new consumption experiences. For example, cloud window-shopping and cloud music concerts have emerged and become beloved by young people. On the other hand, digital technology has promoted the optimization of consumption structures. It has empowered industrial manufacturing and catered to the diversified, personalized and customized needs of consumers. E-commerce as an important force for promoting consumption According to the report, against the backdrop of the complex and severe domestic and international situation and the impact of multiple unexpected factors, China has scientifically coordinated pandemic prevention and control and economic and social development, and the national economy has continued to recover despite this pressure. In the third quarter, the economy continued to recover, showing strong economic resilience. E-commerce has played an important role in this from three aspects. First, e-commerce has become an important force for stimulating consumption and ensuring supplies for pandemic prevention. The unique Cross-Border E-commerce As A New Tool to Stabilize Foreign Trade and Stimulate ConsumptionBy Joyce Li

37advantages of contactless and online e-commerce meet the requirements of coordinating pandemic prevention and control and economic and social development. E-commerce has also played an important role in pandemic prevention and supply and stimulating consumption potential. In terms of stimulating consumption, from January to September 2022, the online retail sales of physical goods reached RMB 8.2374 billion, up by 6.1%, which is far higher than the growth rate (0.7%) of the total retail sales of consumer goods (hereinafter referred to as “total social retail sales”) in the same period; in terms of monthly data, since this year, the monthly growth rate of online retail sales of physical goods has been far higher than the total amount of social retail. From March to May, when the total amount of social retail dropped, the online retail sales of physical goods still maintained a high growth rate; and from January to September, the online retail sales of physical goods accounted for 25.7% of the total retail sales, 2.1 percentage points higher than the same period in 2021. China’s e-commerce ranks first in the world in terms of the online retail market, the number of online shoppers, digital express business and the mobile payment scale. In terms of pandemic prevention and supply guarantees, since this year, with the support of the government at all levels, e-commerce enterprises have made great efforts to expand the supply of goods, unblock distribution channels, stabilize the price of materials, and effectively guarantee the supply of pandemic prevention materials and daily necessities. From January to September 2022, among the online retail sales of physical goods, sales of food, clothing and consumer goods increased by 15.6%, 4.7% and 5.2% respectively. The online consumption of food and other necessities was impressive, which effectively guaranteed the supply of daily necessities for residents.Second, the innovation of consumption scenarios has boosted the transformation of the service industry. Influenced by the pandemic, it is now clear that offline service consumption is restricted by many factors, and online service consumption has become increasingly important. The new generation of information technology is deeply integrated with the service industry. “Internet plus” has stimulated new momentum for the service industry, broken the time and space constraints for both the supplier and consumer, enriched the service consumption scene, improved the service consumption experience, and made the online service supply more diversified and sufficient. It has also unleashed the growth potential of the service consumption market. In terms of online offices, as of June 2022, the number of online office users in China has reached 461 million, accounting for 43.8% of all internet users. As of March 2022, the online office platform “Ding Talk” has served more than 21 million institutional users. The number of registered users of Tencent meeting has already exceeded 300 million, with more than 100 million active users each month. The number of users of online medical services in China has also reached 300 million, accounting for 28.5% of the total number of internet users. Besides providing medical and pharmaceutical services, large internet medical platforms have further expanded digital health management and are promoting innovation in medical services and other related fields.Third, cross-border e-commerce has become an important vehicle for stabilizing foreign trade and promoting consumption through policy support. In 2022, when faced with the complex domestic and international situations and multiple unexpected factors, cross-border e-commerce has played an important role in stabilizing foreign trade by virtue of online trading, contactless delivery, the short trading chain and other advantages. On the one hand, cross-border e-commerce has been developing fast and has made important contributions to the stabilization of foreign trade. According to the data released by the Ministry of Commerce, China’s cross-border e-commerce maintained steady and rapid growth in 2022, and the foreign trade volume of cross-border e-commerce in the first half of the year increased by 28.6% year on year; the General Administration of Customs said that from January to August this year, cross-border e-commerce B2B direct export and cross-border e-commerce export through overseas warehouses grew rapidly; and data released by the customs offices of Zhejiang, Jiangxi and other places also showed that the foreign trade volume through cross-border e-commerce management platforms grew robustly in the first three quarters. On the other hand, cross-border e-commerce import has become a new path for consumption upgrading. At present, cross-border e-commerce has become an important channel for consumers to purchase global products. In the process of upgrading Chinese residents’ consumption, imitative and wave-style consumption has been gradually replaced by personalized and diversified consumption. This decentralized and global-oriented cross-border e-commerce is able to meet consumers’ personal needs. According to data from JD, the number of SKUs of imported brand goods in the first half of 2022 increased by 51% year on year. In terms of online offices, as of June 2022, the number of online office users in China has reached 461 million, accounting for 43.8% of all internet users.