Nowadays, practitioners in the field of e-commerce have reached a consensus: cross-border e-commerce is the only area in the field with development potential and has not been developed on a large scale. However, this field includes business entities that adopt various models, and its overall development outline is relatively vague, which makes many participants do not know where to start.
So, what is the development trend of cross-border e-commerce? What problems need to be solved? What challenges will be encountered in the development process?
1. The import cross-border e-commerce market has broad prospects
Previously, iResearch conducted a survey on 9,300 online shopping users and published the “2013 Cross-border Online Shopping Survey Report” based on this. The report shows that more than 2,300 users have participated in cross-border shopping, but only more than 310 users frequently purchase overseas products through online platforms, which is a very low proportion. This shows that most Chinese consumers do not know much about cross-border shopping at this time, and there is still a lot of room for development in the domestic market.
In 2013, import e-commerce accounted for about 11.8% of the entire cross-border e-commerce, and by 2015 this proportion had risen to 16.8%. The increase in the overall scale of cross-border e-commerce and the increase in the proportion of imported e-commerce will continue to expand the market prospects of imported e-commerce.
Moreover, in the future development process, people’s understanding of cross-border shopping will be further improved. At that time, the market of cross-border imported e-commerce will be developed on a larger scale, and the market share of this industry will continue to rise in a short period of time.
2. The demand for cost-effective cross-border goods is growing
According to the survey results of iResearch Consulting, domestic users focus on cross-border shopping. The results show that there are three main reasons why consumers choose cross-border goods: reliable quality, low price, and convenient and easy-to-use online platforms. In other words, consumer groups pay attention to product quality, price comparison between overseas products and similar domestic products, and the ease of operation of the website itself.
As for the types of goods, consumer groups also have their own focuses. From the current point of view, the goods that consumers buy in large quantities are: cosmetics, clothing and accessories, maternal and child products, and electronic products. In addition, young consumer groups dominate. Relevant statistical results show that users over the age of 35 only account for 20%, and the rest are young consumers. It is worth noting that 40% of the consumers are between 25 and 30 years old. These users have not worked for a long time. When their salary levels gradually increase, the corresponding cross-border e-commerce market share will also increase.
3. Difficulties of cross-border e-commerce: supply chain system
In the specific operation process, only by optimizing the cross-border supply chain can we avoid the infringement of consumers’ interests and expand the market space. Nowadays, the control of overseas suppliers and the operation of cross-border logistics are two problems to be solved in cross-border supply chain management.
In terms of the control of overseas suppliers, the biggest problem currently faced is that high-quality merchants cannot be found. The coverage of the brand is relatively small, and there is no development plan for the overseas market. Some brands already have their own agents and marketing channels in the overseas market, and the operation of cross-border e-commerce may bring an impact on their traditional development methods. Because high-quality merchants cannot be found, cross-border e-commerce platforms cannot guarantee the supply of goods, resulting in the proliferation of counterfeit and shoddy goods, which is not conducive to the development of the e-commerce field.
In terms of cross-border logistics operation, the following two points need to be solved: on the one hand, the time consumed for the transportation of goods is too long; secondly, the customs clearance processing capacity is weak. If the logistics link is handed over to a third-party enterprise, it may not be possible to achieve the integration of information flow, logistics and capital flow, and the logistics link will invest too much time cost. Customs clearance capability mainly refers to the speed of handling various import and export procedures and tariff control. If the processing capability of this link is low, it will not be able to meet consumers’ psychological expectations of timeliness.
The cross-border operation of Mogujie is a typical example. The company’s CEO Chen Qi and his team launched the Korean overseas purchasing business in the third quarter of 2013. However, by the end of December 2013, the business had withdrawn from its business scope. Although Mogujie has reached a cooperative relationship with some Korean companies, it is difficult for the platform to manage overseas suppliers. Moreover, the platform encountered problems in cross-border logistics and customs clearance during operation, and could not handle them in time, so it had to give up the operation of the overseas purchasing channel.
4. Relevant policies of cross-border e-commerce need to be further improved
In terms of policies related to the development of cross-border e-commerce, the bonded import model is the focus of people’s attention.
Of course, these pilot policies that have been issued are not immutable and may change due to specific circumstances in the subsequent development process. Although Amazon and others have settled in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, companies still need to be cautious in the operation of the bonded import model. In its subsequent development, relevant agencies will introduce a series of policies, but the policy direction is still unpredictable. The future development of e-commerce platforms may face more pressure due to inconsistency with policies, and at the same time, they must maintain their position in the increasingly fierce competition.
The main reason why relevant agencies have not yet issued clear policies is that the sales channels of many products are irregular, and this phenomenon is widespread. In order to improve this situation, it is necessary to establish correct values in the entire field, strengthen the connection between the industry and regulatory agencies, and work together to promote standardized operations in the industry.