2015 was the most difficult and complicated year for China’s foreign trade. According to the statistics of the General Administration of Customs, the total value of China’s foreign trade imports and exports fell by 6.9% in the first half of 2015. On the contrary, cross-border e-commerce, as a new type of incremental foreign trade in China, has developed rapidly and is likely to become the biggest driving force for China’s economic development in the future. Although China’s traditional foreign trade model has encountered difficulties under the overall economic downturn, some traditional advantages of Made in China still exist. China will remain a major manufacturing country for a long time in the future. As an innovation in foreign trade circulation, cross-border e-commerce still has a long way to go. It faces many problems and industry pain points. Encouragement, support and policy innovation at the Chinese government level are crucial.
At present, many traditional Chinese export companies still have many deficiencies in their understanding and application of cross-border e-commerce in terms of concepts and views. For a long time, traditional Chinese foreign trade export companies are only willing to accept large orders and maintain a large-scale production model. This business model has been used for many years. It will take a long time for many traditional foreign trade export companies to accept the cross-border e-commerce production model that focuses on operation, overseas market promotion, small batches, and personalized customization. The process of promoting and educating the market for cross-border e-commerce is different from that of traditional B2B e-commerce. The industry characteristics of cross-border e-commerce make it have natural bottlenecks in terms of law, taxation, customs clearance, tax refund and customs policy, and it needs to rely on the government to promote it at the macro level.