Trade rides digital wave, new formats

Gadgets, Christmas goods and machines … all are par for China's cross-border e-commerce course

The COVID-19 pandemic may have savaged many a business, but the dark cloud has a silver lining: resurgent foreign trade riding the wave of new formats and models like cross-border e-commerce, new technologies like big data, and tools like digital payments and online exhibitions－all necessitated by curbs on travel and transport, and measures like social distancing.

China's Ministry of Commerce said first-half foreign trade volume rose by 27 percent year-on-year to 18.07 trillion yuan ($2.78 trillion), driven by robust demand from the rapid recovery in major economies and the speedy growth of cross-border e-commerce.

Last year, as many as 10,000 firms like exporters and importers embraced digitalization for the first time, helping boost foreign trade via cross-border e-commerce by 31 percent to 1.69 trillion yuan.

From Christmas goodies to juicers to laptops to mini-excavators to even large-scale machinery, everything is now par for the cross-border e-commerce course. And momentum is picking up in the second half.

Xu Wei, chairman of Shenzhen Dome Technology Co Ltd, which makes and exports consumer goods from Dongguan, Guangdong province, knows all about the digital revolution sweeping China's foreign trade.

In mid-July, Dome Tech had to resort to air cargo to rush 4,300 car cameras and sports recorders from Shenzhen Baoan International Airport to Frankfurt, Germany. That was done because overseas customers who placed the orders for the Christmas season using cross-border e-commerce channels, wanted delivery sooner than later, to preempt any possible delays.

Even as the cargo flight took off from the Shenzhen airport, Xu called his most capable freight forwarder to inquire about the ocean shipping containers booked by Dome Tech. More goods had to be shipped from the cargo terminal of Shenzhen's Shekou Port to Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

Such is the pressure created by orders generated by cross-border e-commerce channels that he and his staff can barely breathe these days, said Xu. "Many of our overseas clients, especially those from the retail sector, demand that we ship their goods for Christmas sales as early as possible to prevent risks like potential delays. They want to prepare their inventory, so some of them paid us more to deliver their goods via air cargo service," he said.

Dome Tech's order book is full, with deliveries scheduled till November, he said. "We've also been pressed by our foreign clients to ship their car and kid cameras, as well as other car accessories to South Korea, Argentina, Europe and the United States via container vessels in recent months."

Like Dome Tech, a large number of export-oriented firms in China have started to adopt digital solutions like big data, business-to-business or B2B platforms and online exhibitions to attract overseas customers and boost sales.

In the process, they are also embracing new formats for trade and novel business models－cross-border e-commerce, market procurement, comprehensive foreign trade service providers, bonded maintenance, offshore trade and overseas warehouses.

This new approach will foster competitiveness in foreign trade, said Wang Tiedong, a professor specializing in regional economic development at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.

"Owing to the previous lockdown and other restrictions on outdoor activities, foreign consumers have gradually shifted their shopping habit from offline to online channels," he said.

They have spent more money on cross-border e-commerce platforms of late than any time in the past, he said.