Clearing the development of cross-border e-commerce will help sellers engaged in cross-border e-commerce grasp the relevant trends and development laws of the industry and make relevant plans for their own development. The following also explains the development trends of cross-border e-commerce from the two levels of import and export cross-border e-commerce.
1. Development trend of import cross-border e-commerce
The development trend of import cross-border e-commerce mainly includes four aspects: accelerated industry development, increased scale of offline physical stores, gradual expansion of consumption areas, and improved buyer experience.
(1) Accelerated industry development
In recent years, the development of cross-border e-commerce has accelerated. In 2019, the number of capital investments in the field of import cross-border e-commerce increased significantly, and several import cross-border e-commerce platforms including KK Pavilion, Dolphin Home, and Feixiong Lingxian successfully received investment.
(2) Increase in the scale of offline physical stores
my country’s cross-border e-commerce sellers have set up offline physical stores one after another. For example, NetEase Kaola’s first offline physical store Haitao Hot Product Store opened in Hangzhou, and has also expanded offline physical stores in Ningbo, Zhengzhou and other cities. It can be seen that vigorously expanding offline physical stores is one of the important development trends of import cross-border e-commerce, so as to break through the constraints of time and space and realize the shopping mode of buyers buying and using immediately.
Netease Kaola’s Haitao Hot Products Store is filled with a wide range of foreign imported goods for Chinese buyers to choose and buy.
(3) Gradually expanding consumption areas
Most buyers of import cross-border e-commerce are currently concentrated in first- and second-tier cities. With the consumption upgrade of third- and fourth-tier cities and towns, it is expected that the consumption area of import cross-border e-commerce will gradually expand in the future.
(4) Improvement of buyer experience
With the gradual maturity of the import cross-border e-commerce field, sellers need to further improve the buyer experience by improving the efficiency and service of the entire transaction process on the basis of ensuring the quality of goods, thereby further improving the benefits of import cross-border e-commerce.
2. Development trend of export cross-border e-commerce
The development trend of export cross-border e-commerce mainly includes the transformation of business models, the rise of emerging markets and the gradual standardization of markets.
(1) Transformation of business models
The main business model of export cross-border e-commerce has begun to change. Cross-border e-commerce has changed from the previous business model of large-volume goods transactions between sellers to a business model where sellers conduct individual transactions directly with buyers. Driven by the pursuit of higher profits, more and more Chinese cross-border sellers have established their own brands and promoted their brands on many cross-border e-commerce platforms, thereby achieving individual transactions with buyers.
(2) The rise of emerging markets
my country’s main cross-border export countries are developed countries in Europe and the United States. However, with the development of cross-border e-commerce in the international market, more and more countries and regions have begun to open their markets, such as Brazil, India, Russia, Africa, the Middle East and other countries or regions. The governments of these countries have also begun to realize the benefits and benefits brought by cross-border e-commerce, and have made certain improvements and adjustments in customs, logistics, taxes and fees, etc., which has provided convenience for my country’s cross-border e-commerce for export.
(3) The market is gradually standardized
Compared with import cross-border e-commerce, export cross-border e-commerce started later. In the development process of export cross-border e-commerce, relevant government departments have established a sound cross-border e-commerce market supervision mechanism and integrity supervision system, cracked down on the sale of counterfeit and shoddy goods and infringement of intellectual property rights, and promoted the standardization of the entire export cross-border e-commerce market, thereby enhancing my country’s export trade economy. Therefore, sellers must improve the value of their products in terms of quality, patents, etc., and avoid opportunistic behavior.