The future’s bright, the future’s e-commerce, SCBEA tells Air Cargo Week

October 8, 2018

China’s e-commerce sector looks set to keep rolling off the back of statistics supplied to Air Cargo Week by industry body the Shenzhen Cross Border E-commercial Association (SCBEA).China’s e-Commerce Research Center shows Chinese cross border e-commerce export transactions amounted to 6.3 trillion Yuan, an increase of 14.5 per cent compared with last year, SCBEA said. Two sub-sectors in particular, B2B and cross-border, were commented on by the association.

The B2B market in China transacted business of 5.1 trillion Yuan, an increase of 13.3 per cent compared with 2016. “B2B is still the leading business model,” SCBEA deputy executive president, global business development William Zhang told Air Cargo Week, “B2B business still takes a ratio of 80 per cent.”

More striking still is the rapid cross-border growth.

“China’s imported cross border e-commerce market reached 1.76 trillion Yuan in 2017, with a growth rate of 46.67 per cent compared with the previous year, showing the great market potential in importation,” said Zhang.

What is helping the sector is strong support from the Chinese government which cuts in tariffs on some consumer goods at the end of 2017, Zhang added.

It reduced the “blind area” of overseas online shopping tax regulation, Zhang pointed out, thereby allowing more foreign products to enter the country through formal channels. This not only encourages domestic consumption, but lets relevant taxes stay in the country and ensures the quality of goods and supply chain control.

Government support though does not end, or start, there.

“In recent years the Chinese State Council has published a wide range of documents to support the “export + e-commerce” model,” said Zhang.

“This support from the state-level will accelerate the development of production, e-payment, logistics and information service industries in China, therefore the Chinese industry structure could be optimised and upgraded. In the future, more policies will be published, benefits from this, we have reason to believe that cross border export e-commerce will continue its trend of a rapid development,” he added.

James Graham

James Graham is an award-winning transport media journalist with a long background in the commercial freight sector, including commercial aviation and the aviation supply chain. He was the initial Air Cargo Week journalist and retuned later for a stint as editor. He continues his association as editor of the monthly supplements. He has reported for the newspaper from global locations as well as the UK.