Globally, China and the United States can definitely be regarded as the “Gemini Constellations” of the Internet economy. According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Commerce, China surpassed Canada for the first time in 2015 and became the largest trading partner of the United States. The bilateral import and export volume of goods between China and the United States was US$598.07 billion, accounting for 15.7% of the total import and export volume of the United States. According to a KPCB report, the North American e-commerce market accounts for 1/3 of global e-commerce transactions, with an annual growth rate of 15%. Online accounts for 10% of total retail sales, and the growth curve has not shown any signs of slowing down.
The U.S. e-commerce market is estimated to have sales of US$350 billion in 2016. The 500 largest e-commerce companies account for 84% of the market share, and Amazon alone holds 40% of the market share. U.S. e-commerce sales are expected to reach $380 billion in 2017, while Canada will reach $44 billion by then. According to a data report from Internet Retailer, the transaction volume of the third-party market in the United States has reached 100 billion U.S. dollars, and the total volume is also quite staggering.
Amazon’s GMV is already twice the GMV of the other nine platforms, and FBA warehouse distribution and Prime membership help it outperform. North America accounts for more than half of Amazon’s global business market share and has a large number of stable Prime members with high spending power. It is the main market for global sellers’ business development. However, product differences across platforms are tending to narrow. Sears’ most popular categories used to be lawn and gardening, Newegg’s 3C products, Esty’s handmade products, etc. They are also working hard to expand seller categories.
Walmart recently spent a huge amount of money to acquire the fledgling third-party e-commerce platform Jet.com, which shows that the retail industry leader is betting on the e-commerce market regardless of the cost. The United States not only has a developed e-commerce platform, but also has the most advanced payment and logistics systems. The three major express delivery giants have a monopoly on package delivery, and they still need to rely on them for dedicated lines or overseas warehouses. The e-mail treasure jointly created by China and the United States has a wide coverage. , cost-effective and reliable, it is the main logistics channel and star product of cross-border e-commerce.
In February 2016, the President of the United States signed a new bill that quadrupled the tax-free limit for imported goods by mail in the United States to $800, while Canada’s tax-free limit was only CAD$20. This has further stimulated American consumers to shop online through cross-border e-commerce platforms, and parcel imports have increased significantly.
Within the tax-free quota, consumers do not need to pay U.S. import tariffs, which reduces export trade costs for Chinese sellers; items do not need to go through formal import declaration procedures, reducing complicated document procedures and accelerating U.S. import customs clearance procedures. And the overall door-to-door transit time improves the logistics performance of sellers’ accounts; sellers can better manage the supply chain and control inventory costs, and use more international direct shipping models to enter higher-value goods into the U.S. market.
Although the United States has been calling for the return of manufacturing recently, China and the United States are highly complementary in economy and trade. One manufactures and the other consumes. The daily consumer goods needed by the domestic market mainly rely on imports, ranging from clothing to clothing. There is a huge demand for imported consumer goods, from home furnishings and toys to small hardware and home appliances. For the future, Forrester Research predicts that by 2020, the number of consumers browsing and purchasing goods online in the United States will reach 270 million (the U.S. population was 319 million in 2014), the total transaction volume will reach 523 billion U.S. dollars, and the main number of active people will Turn to mobile.