Looking back on the business development in 2020, Michael, a seller of cycling supplies for cross-border e-commerce businesses, is overjoyed. In the past, the peak season for overseas sales of cycling supplies was usually from May to October. However, last year, the epidemic pushed up the demand for outdoor supplies, and Michael's sales of outdoor cycling supplies rose continuously throughout the year, and the sales volume exceeded 10 million yuan.

The countertrend growth of cross-border e-commerce in 2020 has become an important force for stabilizing China's foreign trade, which has benefited countless Michael.

Growth against the trend is full of momentum

According to a Hugo survey of the cross-border e-commerce industry in 2020, 70% of Chinese sellers have achieved sales growth. Of these, 23% have doubled their sales.

B2B platforms for cross-border e-commerce, which gather many sellers, are also doing well. According to Alibaba's 2020 annual report, the paid-in transaction volume on the platform increased by 101% year-on-year in dollar terms, and the number of orders doubled year-on-year.

Customs data can better reflect the dynamic development of cross-border e-commerce. In 2020, cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 1.69 trillion yuan, up 31.1 percent year on year. Exports accounted for 1.12 trillion yuan, up 40.1%; Imports were 0.57 trillion yuan, up 16.5%. All indicators are significantly higher than the overall growth rate of trade in goods. The customs cross-border e-commerce management platform approved 2.45 billion import and export lists, an increase of 63.3% over the same period last year.

"The customs data confirms the huge market space and industry potential of cross-border e-commerce." Wang Shutong, founder and chairman of cross-border e-commerce B2B export platform Dunhuang, said the compound revenue growth rate of Dunhuang has exceeded 60 percent for three consecutive years. In 2020, Dunhuang's turnover in overseas traditional shopping seasons such as "Black Friday" and "Cyber Monday" reached a new high, with more than 35 percent of merchandise categories doubling year-on-year, and more than 50 percent of merchandise categories reaching the highest volume of the year.

When analyzing the development of foreign trade in 2020, Li Xinggan, Director General of the Department of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Commerce, said that cross-border e-commerce has become the first choice for enterprises to carry out international trade and the vanguard of foreign trade innovation and development. More than 10,000 traditional foreign trade enterprises have been online to improve the quality and efficiency, and the driving force of trade innovation and development is strong.

Good policy to add vitality

Favorable policies are also an effective help for cross-border e-commerce to hedge risks.

In 2020, the list of imported goods in cross-border e-commerce retail will be adjusted and expanded. The trial of cross-border e-commerce retail import was expanded from 37 cities to the whole island of Hainan and 86 other cities and regions, covering 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. 46 new pilot zones for cross-border e-commerce were set up to support enterprises in building and sharing overseas warehouses. We will standardize the development of cross-border payments and lift market access for foreign exchange settlement... Favorable policies continue to be released, and the development environment for cross-border e-commerce continues to be optimized.

At the same time, we will comprehensively promote cross-border e-commerce export goods return supervision measures, optimize cross-border e-commerce retail import return measures, and help enterprises improve the after-sales service system. Pilot cross-border e-commerce business-to-business (B2B) export trials will be innovated, and "9710" and "9810" trade modes will be added. Pilot enterprises will be able to apply customs clearance facilitation measures such as "one-time registration, one-point connection, priority inspection, permit customs transfer, and facilitate return of goods". We supported cross-border e-commerce, mail and other transport businesses through the use of the freight train capacity between China and Europe. We supported postal authorities in opening temporary mail routes for entry and exit. A total of 15 temporary exit ports and 13 temporary entry ports were opened, and cross-border e-commerce logistics channels were expanded and unblocked. Li Kuiwen, spokesman of the General Administration of Customs and director of the statistics and analysis department, said at a press conference of the State Information Office on January 14 that the continuous innovation and optimization of the regulatory system strongly supports the orderly development of new business forms such as cross-border e-commerce.

The New Year promises high growth

"China's cross-border e-commerce market will maintain high growth in 2021." Lin Zhiyong, a senior expert on cross-border e-commerce and a special researcher at the Internet Economic and Social E-commerce Research Center, pointed out that the spread of the epidemic will continue to promote the transformation of consumer behavior, making offline consumption shift to online consumption. While debt and currency risks may slow the growth of cross-border e-commerce, the overall recovery of the global economy will provide strong support for the industry. In the next 3 to 5 years, cross-border e-commerce will still be in the golden period of development.

Lin specifically mentioned the cross-border e-commerce business opportunities spawned by RCEP. He analyzed that the large-scale tax reduction within the RCEP region will narrow the cost gap between general trade and cross-border e-commerce, and give cross-border e-commerce more space for development. The removal of non-tariff barriers, intra-regional customs clearance and trade facilitation measures will improve the efficiency of customs clearance and logistics distribution, improve the delivery time and customer experience of direct post e-commerce, and further optimize the structure of cross-border e-commerce. At the same time, the unified market effect of RCEP will significantly improve the coordination of policies and the quality and efficiency of regulatory cooperation among countries in the region in terms of regulation, taxation, data flow, privacy, etc., reduce transaction uncertainty, enhance transparency, and build up energy for the cross-border e-commerce market in Southeast Asia.

In Hugo cross-border founder and CEO Yaoxiong Weng's view, in 2021, in the process of global trade chain restructuring, cross-border e-commerce industry personalized, efficient circulation, cost-effective DTC brands (brands facing consumers directly) will embrace a historic window period to go to sea. But logistics will remain the industry's biggest challenge. The uncertainties caused by the overseas epidemics will keep the cross-border transport capacity tight and the delivery rate may continue to decline, which will test the management, organizational and emergency response capabilities of all parties.

Wang Shutong said, to help the weak ability to resist risk of small and medium-sized micro sellers breakthrough development of key links, such as logistics, capital bottleneck, dunhuang nets will fully release ability of supply chain integration platform, with the help of all links, huge amounts of data across the scene to promote cross-border business state fusion and collaborative development, to help the "made in China" deep into the global market.

In the future, focusing on the development of cross-border e-commerce and the concerns of enterprises, relevant policy departments will continue to optimize services, improve supervision, and constantly promote the high-quality development of cross-border e-commerce.