No.256

　　The scale of cross-border e-commerce transactions has grown rapidly in recent years. In 2013, according to iResearch’s estimation, the transaction volume of cross-border e-commerce in China was about 3.1 trillion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 31.1% from 2008 to 2013, accounting for an increasing proportion of the total import and export trade. At present, China’s cross-border e-commerce trade is still dominated by exports, accounting for more than 80%, but the proportion of import trade is also gradually increasing.

　　Geographically, each region is also developing regional cross-border trade e-commerce. In 2012, the National Development and Reform Commission and the General Administration of Customs approved Shanghai, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Ningbo and Zhengzhou as pilot cities for cross-border trade e-commerce. In 2013-14, some cities were successively included in the pilot cities of cross-border trade e-commerce. Cities such as Yiwu and Xiamen have begun to focus on building local cross-border trade e-commerce platforms, logistics platforms and payment platforms. Since 2013, cross-border trade e-commerce in all regions has achieved rapid growth.

　　In the process of e-commerce of traditional cross-border trade, the business in emerging markets has grown very rapidly. In 2013, in China’s export trade, the total export volume of the United States, Japan and Europe accounted for about 39%, while Africa and Latin America accounted for about 4% and 6% respectively. In the field of export e-commerce, statistics from EBAY and Alibaba show that the cross-border trade volume and growth rate of Argentina, Israel, Russia, Brazil and other countries are particularly prominent.

　　China’s annual export trade scale is at the level of 10 trillion RMB, and the market space is huge. In 2013, China’s export trade reached 2.2 trillion US dollars (about 13.6 trillion RMB), and the total import and export trade was about 4.2 trillion US dollars. According to iresearch, in 2013, China’s cross-border e-commerce transaction volume was 3.1 trillion RMB. Massive market demand has brought huge growth space for the development of e-commerce in cross-border trade.

　　From the perspective of subdivided products, most export categories are suitable for expanding e-commerce channel sales.

　　According to the data of the General Administration of Customs in the first half of 2013, more than 50% of China’s export commodities are mechanical and electrical products, and labor-intensive products such as textiles and clothing account for about 20%. Compared with bulk raw materials, consumer goods such as mechanical and electrical products and textiles are less difficult to trade e-commerce. From the perspective of commodity structure, China’s export e-commerce space is also considerable.