WHY CHINA’S CROSS-BORDER E-COMMERCE MARKET IS SURGING?
At $5.8 trillion last year, China has the second-largest retail market in the world. One area in the market in particular is showing promise: the cross-border e-commerce channel, says a new report from global consultancy Deloitte, the China Chamber of International Commerce and AliResearch, which is a part of Alibaba Group.
中国去年的零售总额为5.8万亿美元，是世界第二大零售市场。全球咨询公司德勤(Deloitte)、中国国际商会(China Chamber of International Commerce)和阿里巴巴集团(Alibaba Group)旗下的阿里研究院(AliResearch)联合发布的一份新报告称，这个市场的一个领域尤其显示出了前景:跨境电子商务渠道。
Cross-border e-commerce in China holds a specific distinction where international companies are allowed to sell certain goods to Chinese consumers online, through platforms such as Alibaba’s Tmall Global and Kaola, at preferential duty rates and without a license to operate a business in the country. According to the report, the channel saw a compound annual growth rate of 76% between 2015 and 2018, while generating RMB 78.5 billion in gross merchandise volume (GMV) last year.
在中国，跨境电子商务有一个特殊的区别，即国际公司可以通过阿里巴巴旗下的天猫国际(Tmall Global)和网易考拉海购(Kaola)等平台，以优惠税率向中国消费者在线销售某些商品，而且无需在中国经营业务。根据该报告，2015年至2018年，该渠道的复合年增长率为76%，而去年的商品交易总额(GMV)为785亿元人民币。
Gao Hongbing, vice president at Alibaba and head of AliResearch, said that the trade-friendly policies and rising demand among Chinese consumers for international goods were driving the growth, which was still in its early stages.
“This sector will serve as an important engine for [China]’s continued consumption growth,” Gao said. “With cross-border e-commerce accounting for just 2.2% of the total online retail market, there is significant runway for long-term growth for brands and retailers.”
阿里巴巴副总裁兼阿里研究院(AliResearch)负责人高红兵表示，有利于贸易的政策和中国消费者对国际商品日益增长的需求推动了增长，而这一增长仍处于初期阶段。
“这一领域将成为(中国)消费持续增长的重要引擎，”高说。“跨境电子商务仅占整个在线零售市场的2.2%，品牌和零售商有很大的长期增长空间。”
For its part, Alibaba Group last year said it would import $200 billion worth of goods to China by 2023, helping to further drive the trend. Below are other important factors cited by the report:
**Top Considerations for Chinese Cross-Border Shoppers: **The cross-border e-commerce channel is a popular way for Chinese consumers to shop for quality products from all over the world, products to which they otherwise lack access. What exactly do they look for when buying overseas goods? “Safety, quality and design,” according to a survey by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce cited in the report.
**Popular Categories, New Categories: **With safety and quality being the primary considerations, perhaps it’s not surprising that beauty and mother/baby are the top-selling categories through the cross-border channel. For example, beauty is the largest category on Tmall Global, accounting for 32% of total GMV in 2018, up from 20.8% in 2014. Chinese consumers are also buying increasingly diverse categories of products via cross-border e-commerce, with consumer electronics and pet supplies being the fastest-growing categories on Tmall Global in 2018, according to the report.
**‘Silver’ Consumers: **By the end of 2018, China’s senior population (65 and above) had reached 150 million, accounting for 10.5% of the population, Deloitte noted. The so-called Silver consumers from first- and second-tier cities have the most spending power, and the report said that health supplements was the top category by Silver consumers accounting for about 30% of their cross-border shopping on the site in 2018.
E-commerce Making Consumption More Inclusive: Online shopping and rising incomes are making it easier for consumers in China – all consumers – to buy the things they want. That inclusiveness can be seen especially in lower-tier cities and rural areas, where spending is becoming a major growth driver for the imported goods market in China, the report noted. These economically less-developed areas account for over 74% of the total population and 56% of the total economy in China, the report said, while users from these areas accounted for 45% of total users on Tmall Global. The average spend per shopper in these areas on Tmall Global still needs to catch up with those from top-tier cities, but sales generated from lower-tier cities jumped to 9% of the total platform GMV from 1% between 2014 to 2018, according to Tmall Global data cited by the report. Also, the average spend per shopper on the platform from each of the top 17 rural counties in China had surpassed top-tier city spending levels in 2018, the report said.
阿里巴巴集团去年表示，到2023年将向中国进口价值2,000亿美元的商品，这进一步推动了这一趋势。以下是报告列举的其他重要因素:
中国跨境购物者的首要考虑:对于中国消费者来说，跨境电子商务渠道是一种广受欢迎的方式，可以让他们购买到来自世界各地的优质产品，而他们原本无法获得这些产品。在购买海外商品时，他们究竟在寻找什么?“安全、质量和设计”，这是根据中国商务部在报告中引用的一项调查得出的结论。
受欢迎的类别，新的类别:由于安全和质量是首要考虑因素，也许并不奇怪，美和母亲/婴儿是跨境渠道中最畅销的类别。例如，美妆是天猫全球最大的品类，占2018年全球商品交易总量的32%，高于2014年的20.8%。报告显示，中国消费者通过跨境电子商务购买的产品种类也越来越多，2018年天猫全球消费电子产品和宠物用品是增长最快的类别。
“银色”消费者:德勤(Deloitte)指出，截至2018年底，中国65岁及以上老年人口已达1.5亿，占总人口的10.5%。来自一二线城市的所谓“银发消费者”拥有最大的消费能力，该报告称，保健品是银发消费者的首选类别，占2018年该网站跨境购物的30%左右。
电子商务使消费更具包容性:网上购物和收入的增加使中国的消费者——所有的消费者——更容易买到他们想要的东西。报告指出，这种包容性在二三线城市和农村地区尤为明显，这些地区的消费正成为中国进口商品市场的主要增长动力。报告称，这些经济欠发达地区占中国总人口的74%以上，经济总量的56%，而这些地区的用户占天猫全球总用户的45%。该报告援引天猫全球的数据称，这些地区的购物者平均支出仍需赶上一线城市的购物者，但二三线城市的销售额占总平台GMV的比例从2014年的1%跃升至2018年的9%。此外，该报告称，2018年，中国排名前17位的农村各县的购物者在该平台上的平均支出超过了一线城市的支出水平。
Livestreaming Is Driving Sales: Livestreaming is playing an important role in attracting Chinese consumers to cross-border e-commerce platforms, as it allows consumers to learn about the products and take advantage of exclusive deals in an interactive way. In the three months ending in September, GMV on Tmall Global generated through livestreaming reached RMB 470 million, up from RMB 62 million a year ago. Livestreaming sessions about beauty, personal care and household cleaning products attracted the most shoppers, the report said.
**Cross-border E-commerce a Testbed for Brands: **The cross-border channel also paves a new way for international brands to test the China market, leveraging the lessons learned to craft their China strategy without significant investment. For example, U.S. retailer Costco and German grocer Aldi entered China by opening a Tmall Global store in 2014 and 2017, respectively. Both retailers opened offline stores in Shanghai this year, expanding their China business by using the consumer insights gleaned from their time on Tmall Global. For small international brands that may have limited resources to launch businesses in China, cross-border e-commerce is a fast and efficient way for them to tap into the China opportunity. The report featured British organic baby-food brand Little Freddie as a business that expanded their China presence from cross-border to both online and offline distribution in four years using what it learned from its initial cross-border experience.
直播正在推动销售:直播在吸引中国消费者进入跨境电商平台方面发挥着重要作用，它让消费者了解产品，并以互动的方式利用独家交易。在截至9月份的三个月里，天猫全球上通过直播产生的GMV达到4.7亿元，高于一年前的6200万元。该报告称，有关美容、个人护理和家居清洁产品的直播活动吸引了最多的购物者。
跨境渠道也为国际品牌测试中国市场提供了一种新的方式，即在无需大量投资的情况下，利用经验教训来制定中国战略。例如，美国零售商好市多(Costco)和德国零售商阿尔迪(Aldi)分别于2014年和2017年在天猫全球开设了一家店铺，从而进入中国市场。这两家零售商今年都在上海开设了实体店，利用他们在天猫国际上收集到的消费者洞察，扩大了他们在中国的业务。对于那些在中国开展业务的资源有限的国际小品牌来说，跨境电子商务是他们开发中国市场的一个快速有效的途径。报告称，英国有机婴儿食品品牌“小弗雷迪”(Little Freddie)利用其最初的跨境经验，在4年内将其在中国的业务从跨境拓展到线上和线下分销。
