Import cross-border e-commerce has gone through the exploration stage, the start-up stage, the development stage and the mature stage. Before 2007, with the rapid increase in the number of overseas students, the first batch of personal purchasing agents represented by overseas students emerged. This stage was mainly characterized by the overseas personal purchasing agent model recommended by acquaintances. The so-called purchasing agent refers to the purchase of the required goods from the local area by individuals abroad, and the delivery to the buyer’s country by international postal parcels, express delivery, etc., or the direct return of the person with the person. With the development of online shopping and the improvement of my country’s consumption level, the phenomenon of “overseas shopping” has emerged. The so-called overseas shopping refers to searching for foreign product information through the Internet, and placing shopping needs in the form of electronic orders. The goods are collected by international express or forwarding companies through foreign shopping websites and then forwarded to the buyer’s country.
In 2007, Taobao launched “Global Shopping”, and then some websites focusing on purchasing agents continued to emerge, and the overseas purchasing agent industry grew and developed. In particular, the dairy product contamination incident that swept the country in 2008 further stimulated the development of overseas purchasing agents and forwarding services. After 2010, Chinese consumers purchased goods from foreign websites such as Amazon and eBay in the United States, and the categories of overseas shopping also expanded from maternal and child products to health products, electronic products, clothing, shoes and hats, cosmetics, luxury goods, etc.
Under the stimulation of various factors, the form of imported cross-border e-commerce is no longer limited to overseas shopping and personal purchasing, and has gradually achieved large-scale and enterprise-oriented development. Traditional domestic e-commerce companies and foreign trade companies have successively poured into the imported cross-border e-commerce market, gradually replacing overseas shopping and personal purchasing, and becoming the main force in the imported cross-border e-commerce market.
In September 2010, my country adjusted the management policy of inbound and outbound personal postal items, tightened the overseas shopping and purchasing market, and the cost and risk of overseas shopping and purchasing increased dramatically. Subsequently, my country launched pilot cities for cross-border e-commerce services, and the development of cross-border e-commerce entered the fast lane. Since July 2014, various policies have been continuously introduced, including the General Administration of Customs’ “Announcement on the Supervision of Cross-border E-commerce Import and Export Goods and Articles” and “Announcement on the Addition of Customs Supervision Method Codes”, involving customs, commodity inspection, logistics, payment and other links, stimulating and regulating the development of import cross-border e-commerce, and gradually putting it on the track of normal development.