Consumers accounted for 31.3% of these sales (USD 10 billion), compared with 22.5% in 2012, according to internetretailer.com, citing the report. China cross-border import ecommerce is forecasted to top USD 94.76 billion (CNY 611.84 billion) in 2018, a more than 40% annual growth for 2017-2019.
The Chinese government developed an expedited clearing process and charges lower duties for small purchases, up to USD 309 (CNY 2,000), compared to bulk imports. Online orders can be shipped from abroad or stored in special free-trade zones that exist in about a dozen Chinese cities.
The report only includes sales through the cross-border ecommerce rules, and not sales by overseas companies via their own ecommerce sites in China. These cross-border rules have helped slow the growth of a “gray market” in which Chinese entrepreneurs would travel abroad to buy foreign goods, bring them into China as personal purchases and sell them at a profit to Chinese consumers, the same source indicates.
While China`s economic growth slowed to below 7% in 2015 for the first time in many years, consumer spending increased to 66.4% of the country`s GDP, while average personal income increased 33% in 2015 compared with 2012.
The report was issued by Analysys international, a research company, and web-only retailer JD.com.
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