Going back to the “first year” of cross-border e-commerce in 2013, it coincided with General Secretary Xi’s visionary concept of “One Belt, One Road”, namely the “Silk Road Economic Belt” and the “21st Century Maritime Silk Road”, and the market development In line with national strategies, we explore new models of international cooperation and global governance through bilateral and multilateral mechanisms and regional cooperation platforms. In 2015, the State Council officially released the specific vision and actions of the “Belt and Road Initiative”, emphasizing the elimination of trade barriers and vigorously developing e-commerce platforms.
The joint construction of the “Belt and Road” aims to promote the orderly and free flow of economic factors, efficient resource allocation and deep market integration, jointly create an open, inclusive, balanced and universally beneficial regional economic cooperation structure, and safeguard global freedom The trading system and open world economy can buffer the risks of trade barriers brought by TPP and TTIP, promote free trade agreement negotiations among countries in the region, and help my country build an international economic, financial, trade, and shipping center, and control international trade dominance and pricing. rights and resource allocation rights.
The “Belt and Road” mainly includes the New Eurasian Land Bridge Economic Belt, the China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Belt, the China-South Asia-West Asia Economic Belt, and the Maritime Silk Road Economic Belt. The total population along the route is approximately 4.4 billion, and the total economic The volume is approximately US$21 trillion, accounting for approximately 63% and 29% of the world respectively. From the perspective of foreign demand, the economies of relevant countries and my country are highly complementary, and the development along the lines shows great differences. The completion of the intercontinental railway transportation line has greatly reduced transportation time and costs, which is conducive to breaking through the logistics bottleneck of cross-border e-commerce development.
From the perspective of industrial development, cross-border e-commerce covers a complete industrial chain of marketing, payment, logistics and financial services, organically combines investment and trade, uses investment to drive trade development, and actively cooperates with countries and regions along the route. Jointly discuss the establishment of a free trade area, strengthen customs cooperation in information exchange, mutual recognition of supervision, and mutual assistance in law enforcement, reduce non-tariff barriers, jointly improve the transparency of technical trade measures, and improve the level of trade liberalization and facilitation.
1. Northern route, China (three eastern provinces)-Mongolia-Russia-Northern Europe (Baltic Sea coast)
Mongolia has a population of about 3 million, a small population and a small e-commerce scale , Internet users account for about 70% of the total population, young people are the main group of online shoppers, and cost-effective daily necessities are the key products for online shopping. Mongolia’s logistics and distribution system is acceptable. Since 2011, it has implemented postal services for every household, and delivery services in cities such as Ulaanbaatar have begun to develop, which can basically meet the needs of online shopping and distribution. Currently, the three parties of the “China-Russia-Mongolia Cross-Border Economic Cooperation Zone” Signed.
Russia is a battleground for cross-border e-commerce, with considerable scale and rapid growth. my country’s online stores account for more than 2/3 of Russia’s cross-border e-commerce, dominating the market. This will be discussed in detail later. In Northern Europe, e-commerce has grown steadily in Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark, maintaining double-digit growth in recent years. For example, cross-border e-commerce accounts for 30% of online shopping in Sweden. AliExpress once said that its online shopping application in Sweden has been ranked first.
2. Middle line, China-Central Asia-West Asia and the Middle East-Central Europe-Western Europe
The five “stan” countries in Central Asia are relatively backward in development and rely heavily on imports for daily necessities. , Online shopping is just in its infancy. Due to opaque information and backward trade levels, there are serious price differences in the market. The development and penetration of e-commerce can effectively solve this problem.
The Internet can reach groups that cannot be satisfied by the traditional import market, including women (a Muslim taboo), small businesses and rural areas. It is reported that Kazakhstan’s B2C website chocolateifeme and Kyrgyzstan’s B2B website prodskladkg are relatively active, but there are no decent pure e-commerce online stores. Due to restrictions on the use of credit cards, there are great risks in online payments, and cash on delivery is currently the main payment method. However, with the help of mobile Internet and opening-up policies, cross-border e-commerce will definitely undergo major changes.
In Xiye and the Middle East, cross-border e-commerce is exploding. The Middle East e-commerce market increased from US$7 billion in 2011 to more than US$15 billion in 2015, with an average annual growth rate of nearly 20%. Countries in the Middle East have high e-commerce penetration rates, with the UAE at 46%, Saudi Arabia at 25%, and Kuwait at 35%. The UAE is the largest B2C e-commerce market in the region. Logistics is mainly by truck, and about 80% of payments are cash on delivery. The development of e-commerce in West Asian countries, led by Turkey, is also worthy of attention. It is reported that more than half of Turkey’s 77 million population are Internet users.
Central Europe includes 8 countries including Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland. Germany is the leader and a powerful engine for the growth of the European e-commerce market. The current scale of the e-commerce industry is 50 billion euros. In Western Europe, you must not miss the UK when doing cross-border e-commerce. In 2016, the proportion of online retail in the UK’s total retail sales will increase from 13.5% in 2010 to 23%, with a total value of more than 200 billion euros. The development of e-commerce in France is not inferior, and the momentum is to catch up with Germany.
3. Southern route, China-Southeast Asia-South Asia-East Africa-Southern Europe (Mediterranean coast)
Southeast Asia is the second fastest growing B2C e-commerce market in the world, including Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore The development momentum of e-commerce in countries such as China and Malaysia is strong. Following the footsteps of China and the United States, this country will usher in a golden age of e-commerce. At present, online shopping here only accounts for 2% of all retail sales. Chinese e-commerce giants such as Alibaba and JD.com have also sneaked into Southeast Asia. There are many Indonesian e-commerce websites and competition is becoming increasingly fierce. The logistics system is relatively sound. Postal and express companies provide door-to-door delivery. The postal parcels of countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam are still famous internationally. For South Asia, just look at India.
Looking at the BRIC countries, the number of Internet users in India is second only to China. With the access to wireless networks and the popularity of smartphones, the Indian e-commerce market can reach a scale of US$222 billion by 2025. . The pace at which major e-commerce companies are seizing the market, investing, financing, M&A, and expanding their scale is not because of the high level of e-commerce development in India, but because of its development potential.
Africa, because offline retail stores are very scattered, there are no large shopping malls, and there is a lack of finished products, is currently in a stage of rapid economic development. In 2015, the GDP of 17 African countries increased by more than 5%. By 2020, more than 52% of Africans will have the ability to purchase freely, and these groups will become the main consumer groups of international goods. This is a young e-commerce market. The number of mobile users in Africa will exceed 1 billion in 2016. The popularity of smartphones and new generation networks will drive the rapid development of mobile e-commerce in Africa. Among them, many Chinese-funded foreign trade companies are in Kenya.
In Southern Europe, most countries are developed countries and have a large demand for 3C, clothing, household and outdoor products. Italy has more than 40 million Internet users, the scale of e-commerce is about 30 billion euros, and the growth rate is about 10%. Online shopping is very common. In Spain, the penetration rate of the Internet and smartphones has reached 70%, there are more than 15 million online consumers, the annual growth rate of the e-commerce market has reached 20%, and more than 50% of online shopping consumers make cross-border purchases, accounting for 44.2% of the total business transactions. %. The Spanish-speaking market cannot be underestimated, and many foreign trade e-commerce companies in my country are specifically targeting this market.
Cross-border e-commerce has become a new window for my country to deepen domestic reform and open up to the outside world in the new era. By creating an “Online Silk Road”, it promotes trade exchanges and the development of small and medium-sized enterprises between my country and the “Belt and Road” countries. , to enhance mutual trust, cooperation and common development among enterprises and people of various countries.
Coordination at the national level promotes the research and formulation of cross-border e-commerce rules and treaties with relevant countries, including supporting management systems and standards related to cross-border e-commerce customs clearance services, and mail express customs clearance. Supervision model of commodity inspection, safety supervision of product quality and traceability mechanism, etc., improve the international cooperation mechanism of cross-border e-commerce, and further promote the international expansion of cross-border e-commerce. In various bilateral and multilateral negotiations, the practical issues of the development of cross-border e-commerce in my country have also been considered to help domestic enterprises handle cross-border e-commerce trade disputes.