The market size of countries and regions such as Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand was introduced, and the characteristics of the Southeast Asian e-commerce market and the development history of Shopee were introduced, with a focus on the process and skills of opening a Shopee store.
On June 20, 2015, the General Office of the State Council issued the “Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Healthy and Rapid Development of Cross-border E-commerce” (hereinafter referred to as the “Opinions”). This is a guiding document to promote the accelerated development of cross-border e-commerce under the new situation. The “Opinions” embodies the overall principle of “regulating in development and developing in regulation”, clarifies the main development goals of cross-border e-commerce, and generally supports domestic enterprises to use e-commerce to carry out foreign trade, while highlighting key points and encouraging capable enterprises to become bigger and stronger. In particular, it is proposed to cultivate a number of public platforms, comprehensive foreign trade service enterprises and self-built platforms, and encourage domestic enterprises to join forces with overseas e-commerce enterprises.
On April 7, 2020, the State Council’s executive meeting decided to set up 46 new cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones. Together with the 59 that have been approved, the country will have 105 cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones, covering 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, thus forming a development pattern of linkage between land and sea, domestic and foreign, and mutual assistance between the east and the west.
In a broad sense, cross-border e-commerce is basically equivalent to foreign trade e-commerce. It refers to an international business activity in which trading entities belonging to different customs territories use e-commerce to electronicize the display, negotiation and transaction links in traditional import and export trade, and deliver goods and complete transactions through cross-border logistics. The transaction process of reaching transactions and payment settlements with the help of computer networks, and using express mail, small packages and other postal methods to deliver goods to consumers through cross-border logistics is actually basically equivalent to cross-border retail. Its basic characteristics are: entry of traditional enterprises, improvement of the industrial chain, opening of branding, wide market coverage, and fast and efficient terminal consumption. Its implementation path is: manufacturers → cross-border e-commerce platforms → foreign online merchants → foreign consumers or manufacturers → cross-border e-commerce platforms → foreign consumers. Its function completely subverts the traditional foreign trade path, that is, manufacturer → exporter → foreign importer → foreign wholesaler → foreign retailer → foreign consumer.
The growth rate of traditional foreign trade has slowed down, and cross-border e-commerce has emerged as a new growth point for foreign trade. Cross-border e-commerce has shortened the traditional supply chain and effectively reduced the cost of intermediate links. Relevant experts believe that: “Small and medium-sized enterprises participate in global trade with the help of cross-border e-commerce platforms, directly facing the personalized needs of customers, which helps to climb from the low-end to the middle-high end of the global value chain”, which is in line with the general direction of the transformation and upgrading of “Made in China”.