China cross-border ecommerce to exceed USD 1 trln in 2016 - study

In H1, 2015, the ecommerce transactions totaled CNY 7.64 trillion (USD 1.20 trillion), up 30.4% year-over-year, according to a report issued by China Ministry of Commerce, chinainternetwatch.com reports. The cross-border e-business market will reach CNY 2 trillion (USD 0.31 trillion), with an increase of 42.8%, accounting for 17.3% of Chinese import and export business market.

China currently has more than 5000 cross-border ecommerce platforms and over 200,000 enterprises conducting such businesses. Ecommerce has become the most active force of China’s import and export trade and, in recent years, cross-border ecommerce has also become a new growth force of China’s foreign trading.

A series of measures have been issued by the Chinese government to contribute to the development of cross-border ecommerce. The total import and export trade of China was CNY 26.43 trillion (USD 4.16 trillion) in 2014, in which cross-border ecommerce reached CNY 3.75 trillion (USD 0.59 trillion). Although China’s online shoppers purchased most frequently from the US, Australia was the top country of cross-border online shopping by average single transaction value, followed by France and the UK.

With the slowing down of the international economy, China’s import and export trading growth rate continues to decrease. However, China’s government publishes policies to promote online business, forexample “internet +”, so that cross-border ecommerce performs well in 2015. The online export trading achieves 80% of the total cross-border online trading. 12% of cross-border online shopping in China came from Shanghai.

After several years of ups and downs, China cross-border ecommerce chain is gradually improving, and a stable structure comes into being. Subdivision markets for e-business set on track and usher in rapid development period, especially overseas online shopping market. The market size of overseas shopping is expected to reach USD 86 billion, accounting for 7% of online shopping and with annual growth rate of 48%.