Cross-border e-commerce occupies an increasingly important position in my country’s economic development, and the development of cross-border e-commerce cannot be separated from the support of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive service platforms.
(I) Cross-border e-commerce customs clearance service platform: customs takes a comprehensive view
The first unified version of the General Administration of Customs’ cross-border e-commerce customs clearance service platform was officially launched in Dongguan, Guangdong on July 1, 2014. This is a system platform that provides convenient services for foreign trade enterprises to clear imports and exports, aiming to unify the customs declaration process. The data uploaded by the platform can be directly connected to the internal system of the General Administration of Customs, saving customs declaration time and improving customs clearance efficiency. On the cross-border e-commerce customs clearance service platform, the customs clearance of goods is supervised by the “three-order comparison” method. The “three-order” refers to the customs declaration provided by the e-commerce enterprise, the payment list provided by the payment enterprise, and the logistics waybill provided by the logistics enterprise. After the “three-order” data is confirmed to be correct, it can be released. By matching the enterprise data with the customs data, the purpose of supervision and statistics is achieved. From the current unified version of the customs clearance service platform, the service objects are mainly concentrated in the export field of small packages and the small order business of import and export foreign trade enterprises.
(II) Cross-border e-commerce public service platform: face-to-face communication between government and enterprises
The cross-border e-commerce public service platform is invested and built by the government. Its meaning is two-way. On the one hand, it builds a public information platform between the functional departments of local governments, and on the other hand, it serves the public (mainly foreign trade enterprises). There are many transparent foreign trade links, involving government functional departments such as national tax (tax refund), SAFE (payment and settlement of foreign exchange), Commerce Commission or Foreign Economic and Trade Commission (enterprise filing, data statistics) and bank settlement of foreign exchange. Traditional foreign trade enterprises need to connect one by one, while the cross-border e-commerce industry has many fragmented orders. If each order is repeatedly connected with the functional departments, it will become an extremely heavy task. In addition, government functional departments also need a public area to share the data uploaded by enterprises, and conduct data collection, exchange comparison, supervision and other work. At present, public service platforms are built by local governments themselves, and there is no national unified version. The service content is different and the interface operation is also different. These local public service platforms also generally adopt the “three-order comparison” method for supervision. Only when the “three-order” procedures are complete and approved by the supervision can they enjoy normal settlement and tax refund. The cross-border e-commerce public service platform has formed an intersection circle between various government functional departments, and has also built a bridge of communication between the government and foreign trade enterprises. Among them, the Shanghai Cross-border E-commerce Public Service Platform (Single Window) is the representative.
(III) Cross-border e-commerce comprehensive service platform: emerging agency services
Some traditional small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises and individual sellers on cross-border e-commerce platforms sometimes feel uncomfortable and urgent when facing new regulatory policies. Some large cross-border e-commerce companies are more experienced in connecting with the government, customs and other departments to deal with problems in the long chain of cross-border e-commerce, so they have bred cross-border e-commerce comprehensive service platforms. Cross-border e-commerce comprehensive service platforms are generally built by large cross-border e-commerce companies, aiming to provide agency services for small and medium-sized enterprises and individual sellers, covering finance, customs clearance, logistics, tax refunds, foreign exchange and other aspects. At present, the well-known comprehensive service platforms in the industry mainly include Yidatong built by Alibaba and Haitong Yida built by Dalong.com.
(IV) Comparison of cross-border e-commerce service platforms
According to the different objects of cross-border e-commerce service platforms, the platforms supporting the operation of cross-border e-commerce can be divided into three categories: cross-border e-commerce customs clearance service platform, cross-border e-commerce public service platform, and cross-border e-commerce comprehensive service platform. These are platforms built from three different levels. The customs clearance service platform corresponds to the customs; the public service platform corresponds to the government; and the comprehensive service platform corresponds to the enterprise. The three platforms are interconnected to form a unified exchange and layer-by-layer transmission of information data.