At 1:05 a.m. on February 10, Mr. Jiang from Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, placed an order for "Bread Ford Plus" on the Chifeng Global Shopping Platform, which was released by the customs system and sent from the Chifeng Bonded Logistics Centre. Unlike in the past, the information of this order included the "barcode information" of the goods.

This day, including Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the national cross-border e-commerce business opened a new era of barcode management, the General Administration of Customs "cross-border e-commerce retail import commodity barcode application" officially fully promoted.

The "commodity barcode" is like an "identity card" for commodities, allowing consumers to "buy global" more quickly and securely, and enterprises to "sell global" more smoothly and efficiently. "This is not only beneficial to innovative regulation and market standardization, but also has a positive role in promoting the construction of a new development pattern.

A "common language" for smooth circulation in the international market

It is understood that the "commodity barcode" is generally composed of a prefix part, manufacturer's code, commodity code and check code. As the "identity card" of commodities, commodity barcode is the "common language" for smooth circulation of commodities in the international market, which is widely used in the international consumer goods circulation field and covers most of the cross-border e-commerce commodities.

Most importantly, through commodity barcode declaration, enterprises not only simplify the customs declaration procedures, but also improve the accuracy of declaration and speed up customs clearance, and greatly improve the accuracy of commodity identification and efficiency of commodity classification in the process of warehousing, which effectively reduces the cost of inventory and realizes the "worry-free selling" of enterprises.

According to the person in charge of Manzhouli Customs Tariff Office Feng Zhe for introduction: "The cross-border e-commerce commodity barcode can be applied to the commodity factory, buyer search, storage management, logistics management and the whole process of after-sales, improve the efficiency of commodity transactions and transportation, while providing convenience for the cross-border e-commerce industry in Inner Mongolia to develop new markets, is one of the tools of the Customs for cross-border e-commerce enterprises to reduce the burden and improve efficiency, and will play a more positive role in promoting the industry play a more active role in the collaborative governance."

"The barcode declaration of cross-border e-commerce imports realises the rapid concatenation of data from e-commerce websites, warehouse management systems and customs manifest declaration systems. In this way, foreign suppliers must also accurately verify commodity barcodes when submitting commodity information, which improves the accuracy of commodity identification in the customs clearance process at the port and makes customs clearance significantly more efficient. At the same time, the sales link in B2C has improved the speed of our warehouse distribution and allocation of goods, improved the timeliness of parcel customs clearance, reduced the rate of parcel inspection and enabled goods to reach consumers more quickly." Li Fang, customs supervisor of Jiangsu Falevi International Trade Co., Ltd, said happily.

Mei Junyong, General Manager of Cross-border Bird (Suzhou) Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd. also said, "After the barcode application for cross-border e-commerce retail import commodities went online, we feel that the customs clearance of cross-border lists is more convenient and efficient than before. The company also took the opportunity of the promotion of the barcode declaration application to realize the cascading of data from the e-commerce mall system, warehouse system and customs clearance declaration system to achieve efficient in and out of the warehouse, effectively reducing inventory costs and compliance management costs. Thanks to Wujiang Customs' advance guidance on policy promotion, this barcode declaration application was seamlessly connected, and our business was not affected at all."

On that day, the barcode application of cross-border e-commerce retail import commodities was fully promoted and implemented in 24 sites of 15 ports in Jiangsu. In order to ensure the smooth implementation of the barcode application for cross-border e-commerce retail import commodities, Nanjing Customs conducted preliminary mapping research on the declaration situation of cross-border e-commerce enterprises in the customs area and guided them to declare in compliance. At the same time, it strengthened the policy publicity and guidance, and promptly solved the difficult problems encountered by enterprises in the process of declaration.

A "reassuring pill" for consumers to shop with confidence

Customs data shows that in 2022, China's cross-border e-commerce import and export 2.11 trillion yuan, an increase of 9.8%, of which imports 0.56 trillion yuan, an increase of 4.9%. Cross-border e-commerce business has not only become an important grasp of stable foreign trade, but also brought a strong boost to promote consumption.

People in the cross-border e-commerce industry particularly value the barcode of goods to improve the transparency of cross-border goods, so that cross-border goods from all over the world can be traced and have a source, which helps to dispel consumers' shopping doubts and truly realize the cross-border goods "buy with confidence", which plays a positive role in promoting the quality development of cross-border e-commerce business.

In this regard, Mr. Jiang from Chifeng said, "When buying imported goods, consumers are most concerned about the reliability of the source and quality of the goods. The 'commodity barcode' can accurately trace the information of the goods, which makes me feel more confident about the seafood I buy, and is a 'reassurance pill' for consumers to shop with confidence!"

To promote the healthy and orderly development of cross-border e-commerce retail import business, Manzhouli Customs has promoted the establishment of a two-way benign communication channel between Customs and cross-border e-commerce enterprises, strengthened publicity and training for enterprises, and promoted the application of cross-border e-commerce retail import commodity barcode in the country on the first day that it was successfully launched, so that global cross-border commodities can be traced with data and sources, so that consumers can buy with confidence and enterprises can sell with peace of mind.

According to the Chifeng Customs Director Xu Ping, the next step, food safety, delivery of "different favor" comprehensive governance, anti-smuggling and other issues of concern to all walks of life will also be the focus of customs efforts, so that the platform is more standardized, consumers more assured, more comfortable enterprises, to help the cross-border e-commerce industry quality development continue to gear up and accelerate.