In the era of big data on the mobile Internet, e-commerce is having a huge impact on traditional business models with its violent development. In this era, a number of cross-border e-commerce companies have also emerged to ride on this business model. Due to the wind of change, domestic cross-border e-commerce has ushered in a period of rapid development in recent years. Its market size and industrial chain have grown steadily, forming a multi-faceted industrial chain integrating marketing, payment, logistics, and financial services.
Data released by iResearch shows that the total scale of domestic cross-border e-commerce transactions reached 3.1 trillion yuan in 2013 alone, with an average annual compound growth rate of 31.1% from 2008 to 2013. The proportion of total import and export trade increased to 9.6%. It is estimated that by 2016, domestic cross-border e-commerce trade is expected to reach 6.5 trillion yuan, accounting for 19.0% of total import and export trade, and the compound growth rate of total trade from 2014 to 2016 will increase to 28.0%.
Cross-border e-commerce mainly has two levels in structure and structure. One is import e-commerce, and the other is export e-commerce. Among them, the scale of imported e-commerce accounts for a relatively small proportion. But from another level, with the advent of the mobile Internet era, consumers’ purchasing behavior and purchasing needs are undergoing unprecedented changes. The trend of online shopping among consumers has already begun, and the development of imported e-commerce in the future will also inevitably There will be a breakthrough. For example, among these import e-commerce companies, overseas shopping is at the forefront in terms of market share among domestic consumers.
The operation method of overseas shopping is that consumers search for the overseas products they need through the Internet and place further orders, and then the overseas shopping websites mail them back to China via international express or transshipment companies. Since maternal and infant products, high-end luxury goods and other products currently have more advantages in terms of quality and price when purchased through overseas channels, the number of overseas shopping users is still increasing rapidly.
This section mainly discusses export cross-border e-commerce. At present, export cross-border e-commerce mainly derives from the following two branches:
(1) Cross-border B2B commodity wholesale
For example, Alibaba and Global Sources, their profit methods It mainly makes money by publishing information and advertising, and relying on merchants’ membership fees and advertising expenses. However, in recent years, the growth of cross-border B2B has gradually slowed down.
(2) The retail model adopted by third-party cross-border platforms and independent B2C cross-border websites
In recent years, export e-commerce retail sales have grown significantly. In 2013, export e-commerce sales Retail transaction volume increased by 60% year-on-year, with total sales reaching US$24 billion. For example, AliExpress, eBay, Amazon, etc. are third-party cross-border platforms with low threshold, wide range and rapid development. Take AliExpress as an example: the total amount of transactions through Alipay in 2013 alone was US$2 billion, and AliExpress has become truly the world’s largest cross-border trading platform.
In addition, there are independent B2C cross-border websites represented by Global.com, Lantingjishi, and Dealextreme. They rely on their own sufficient funds and technical support to integrate upstream and downstream supply chains and achieve self-built The independent B2C cross-border e-commerce model of the mall.
There are currently more than 200,000 domestic companies working hard in the field of cross-border e-commerce. Most of them use cross-border B2B platforms represented by Alibaba and Global Sources to conduct transactions with overseas customers.
This method is different from the traditional foreign trade model and can improve efficiency and achieve favorable allocation of resources, so it has developed rapidly over a period of time.
The cross-border B2C model that has emerged in recent years and the emergence of these third-party platforms have not only shortened the foreign trade supply chain, but also further improved efficiency, allowing cross-border exporters to conduct business through the Internet platform. Ordering, payment, logistics and after-sales operations directly communicate with foreign consumers, greatly reducing intermediate links. And because there is a larger profit margin in commodity exports, it has achieved rapid development.