Although Ningbo is squeezed by Shanghai and Hangzhou, Ningbo’s cross-border e-commerce is developing vigorously. Ningbo is a modern international port city and a distribution center and logistics center for ocean shipping trade in Zhejiang Province and even East China. Ningbo Free Trade Zone is mainly engaged in cross-border e-commerce imports, and relies on the advantages of bonded warehouses to carry out “bonded stocking” on a large scale. It also supports overseas direct mail for general imports.
Companies that want to engage in cross-border e-commerce must register their companies in Ningbo. Doing so can tie the settled companies into the bonded area and make them unable to leave easily, which is exactly the opposite of Guangzhou’s model. In December 2014, the Ningbo Free Trade Zone Government-Enterprise Service Platform was completed and launched online. The “Cross-Border Shopping” platform is similar to Shanghai’s “Cross-Border Service” and also sells things.
The Ningbo Free Trade Zone has a solid foundation. Since 2010, the Ningbo Free Trade Zone has begun to build an imported goods market, and has initially formed an imported consumer goods display and trading platform of nearly 300,000 square meters in the Free Trade Zone and the Ningbo Import Center. With more than 600 member companies, it has built the largest physical imported goods market in the country. In addition, the traceability system for imported goods is also relatively complete.
Inspection and quarantine supervise bonded goods according to risk classification, and require e-commerce companies to affix anti-counterfeiting traceability QR codes. After the goods arrive at Ningbo Airport, except for a small number of packages that require unpacking and inspection by customs, most other packages can be cleared and released as long as the information is complete, and the customs clearance efficiency is very high. NetEase Kaola Overseas Shopping has invested a total of 500 million yuan in Ningbo Bonded Warehouse and plans to build 4 independent warehouses with a total construction area of 256,000 square meters. After the warehouse is completed, the daily processing volume will reach 200,000 orders.