On the morning of October 2nd, a batch of cross-border e-commerce goods such as health products and skincare products, dispatched from Wenzhou Comprehensive Bonded Zone, boarded a flight at Wenzhou Longwan International Airport and flew to Incheon, South Korea. This is a vivid example of cross-border e-commerce companies being busy with order processing and shipping during the National Day holiday.

In Zhuhai, Guangdong, the 2024 Global Cross-Border E-Commerce Annual Conference (Zhuhai-Hengqin) was held from the 8th to the 9th, with approximately 1,500 attendees discussing industry development and ecosystem construction around the theme of "New High Ground, New Advantages, New Dynamics," focusing on industry opportunities and global trends. Attendees believe that cross-border e-commerce is changing the ways, habits, and rules of global trade at an unprecedented speed, accelerating the reshaping of the world trade landscape.

This dynamic business model of cross-border e-commerce is receiving increasing attention from all sectors. Experts say that, judging from the data recently released in various places, cross-border e-commerce continues to grow rapidly. As an important force in China's foreign trade development, the booming growth of cross-border e-commerce will provide strong support for stabilizing China's foreign trade fundamentals.

Intensive Shipping During the National Day Holiday

To ensure the smooth shipment of cross-border e-commerce goods during the National Day holiday, Wenzhou Customs visited cross-border e-commerce companies and air cargo agents within the Wenzhou Comprehensive Bonded Zone in advance, formulating supervision plans and safeguarding plans according to the needs of the enterprises.

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Lang Huiping, the customs director of Wenzhou Tianchu E-commerce Co., Ltd., a company within the Wenzhou Comprehensive Bonded Zone, introduced that in mid-September, Wenzhou Customs came to the company to understand the estimated shipment volume for this year's National Day holiday and reminded the company to stock up on related packaging materials in advance to ensure the smooth shipment of goods.

In addition to Wenzhou, cross-border e-commerce companies in many places do not take a break during the National Day holiday. For example, during the National Day holiday, Hangzhou Xiaoshan Airport Customs supervised a total of 4,212.18 tons of import and export goods, a year-on-year increase of 6.37%, including nearly 3.6 million cross-border e-commerce shipments, a year-on-year increase of 67%. Yantai Airport actively coordinated with customs, border defense, and other joint inspection units to ensure smooth shipment of cross-border e-commerce, international express (mail) items, and other goods.

Experts say that this new foreign trade method of cross-border e-commerce makes "buying global, selling global" more smooth. From ordering, production to receiving goods, high-quality Chinese manufacturing products are increasingly delivered to global consumers more quickly, and more and more global products are also entering our market more smoothly.

Improving Policies to Build an Ecosystem

As a new business model in China's foreign trade development, cross-border e-commerce has developed rapidly in the past two years. Data shows that in the first half of 2024, China's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 1.22 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.5%.Exceeding the overall growth rate of China's foreign trade by 4.4 percentage points during the same period.

Hong Tao, Vice Chairman of the China Consumer Economics Society and Director of the Business Economics Research Institute at Beijing Technology and Business University, estimates that China's cross-border e-commerce import and export scale is expected to reach 29.5 trillion yuan in 2024.

At the 2024 Global Cross-Border E-Commerce Annual Conference (Zhuhai-Hengqin), industry insiders believe that the rapid development of China's cross-border e-commerce in recent years is not only due to the development of digital technology but also a manifestation of the stronger power of China's manufacturing industry chain under new technology models.

This is attributed to the increased policy support. Lv Dalian, Director of the Statistical Analysis Department of the General Administration of Customs, recently stated that the General Administration of Customs is currently studying and promoting the "inspection before loading" model for cross-border e-commerce export goods, as well as expanding the pilot scope of cross-border e-commerce retail export returns across customs districts and other measures. The General Administration of Customs will continue to optimize and improve the functions of the customs cross-border e-commerce clearance service system, further simplify processes, and optimize services to better meet the needs of consumers and enterprises for "buying and selling globally."

The Ministry of Commerce stated that it will continue to work with relevant departments to solidly promote the construction of comprehensive pilot zones for cross-border e-commerce, continuously improve supporting policies, enhance the level of regulatory facilitation, and accelerate the construction of an industrial chain and ecosystem adapted to the development needs of cross-border e-commerce, promoting high-quality development of cross-border e-commerce.

Helping foreign trade to maintain stable growth

Industry insiders believe that with policy support, China's cross-border e-commerce is expected to maintain a rapid growth trend.

Zuo Xiaolei, a consultant to the China Cross-Border E-Commerce 50 Forum, said at a sub-forum of the 2024 Global Cross-Border E-Commerce Annual Conference (Zhuhai-Hengqin) that China's cross-border e-commerce is growing at a double-digit rate annually, and it is expected to maintain this growth rate in the next two years.

The rapid development of cross-border e-commerce provides support for the stable growth of China's foreign trade. Taking Guangdong, a major foreign trade province, as an example, guests attending the 2024 Global Cross-Border E-Commerce Annual Conference (Zhuhai-Hengqin) said that the total import and export volume of cross-border e-commerce in Guangdong Province has soared from 11.3 billion yuan in 2015 to 843.3 billion yuan in 2023, expanding 75 times in 8 years with an average annual growth of 71.4%, accounting for more than 1/3 of the national total, ranking first in the country, and achieving full coverage of comprehensive pilot zones for cross-border e-commerce in 21 prefecture-level cities.

As Bai Ming, a member of the Academic Degree Committee of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce and a researcher, said, the development of cross-border e-commerce is conducive to stabilizing the basic plate of foreign trade and foreign investment, and promoting high-quality development of trade.