新年伊始就迎来开门红，杭州这家跨境企业今年目标“两位数增长”

This article outlines the sustained high growth of China's cross-border e-commerce exports, shares growth targets set by numerous industry players and offers actionable operational insights, as summarized below:

1. Overall industry indicators are positive. In 2023, China's cross-border e-commerce exports reached 1.83 trillion yuan, up 19.6% year-on-year. By the end of 2023, domestic cross-border e-commerce enterprises had registered more than 30,000 trademarks overseas, and the Chinese government will roll out multiple supporting policies this year to boost industry development.

2. Two successful cases from different types of enterprises offer actionable insights: A Gansu-based agricultural specialty enterprise leveraged its geographic indication product advantages rooted in local production and used Alibaba.com to enter the Russian and Central Asian markets. It generated over 100 million yuan in orders within less than a year of launch, sets a 2024 cross-border export target of 100 million yuan, and plans to build a new factory to expand production capacity. Traditional foreign trade firm Great Star Industrial laid the groundwork for its own private label cross-border e-commerce business eight years ago. Competing on product quality and brand power rather than price wars, its private label business now accounts for nearly 50% of total revenue, and the company has maintained double-digit growth for multiple consecutive years.

China's cross-border e-commerce exports are maintaining strong growth, opening up new opportunities for Chinese brands going global. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. New market and consumer trend opportunities: Driven by the Belt and Road Initiative, markets along the route including Russia and Central Asia hold high recognition and strong demand for quality Chinese products, making them key new growth markets. Overseas consumers are increasingly shifting towards personalized and gift-oriented purchases; for example, the pink drill set launched by Hangzhou-based Great Star Industrial for Valentine's Day has become a top-selling product overseas.

2. Lessons for brand building: The foreign trade industry has moved past the era of pure price competition. Product quality plus independent branding is the path forward. Cross-border e-commerce allows brands to bypass intermediaries, reach overseas consumers directly, cut export costs, boost product added value and strengthen international competitiveness.

3. Future direction and policy support: Going global with brands requires aligning with local market demand, advancing localized product R&D and operations to achieve the transition from exporting products to exporting brands. This year, the Chinese government will roll out multiple supporting policies for brand globalization, including an intellectual property protection guideline.

Cross-border e-commerce exports continue to see strong growth, bringing a range of new opportunities for sellers of all sizes. Key insights are summarized below:

1. Growth opportunities in emerging markets: Driven by the Belt and Road Initiative, economic and trade cooperation between China and Central Asia has expanded rapidly, with Russian and Central Asian markets seeing strong demand for characteristic Chinese agricultural products, light industrial goods and other products, with fast order growth. These are incremental markets well worth sellers entering.

2. Clear policy dividends: This year, the Chinese government will continue to foster new growth drivers for cross-border e-commerce foreign trade, roll out measures to expand cross-border e-commerce exports and promote the development of overseas warehouses, advance the "cross-border e-commerce plus industrial clusters" development model, train 100,000 industry professionals, and release a cross-border e-commerce intellectual property protection guideline, representing strong support for the industry.

3. Practical experience and opportunity alerts: Small and medium-sized sellers can leverage their local characteristic product advantages and third-party platforms to enter overseas markets. More established sellers should avoid competitive price-driven red oceans and build their own private labels to capture higher added value. Sellers should expand production capacity in advance to meet growing demand after order volumes rise.

The rapid growth of cross-border e-commerce exports is bringing new business opportunities and transformation insights for domestic factories. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. New business opportunities: Markets along the Belt and Road route, including Russia and Central Asia, see strong demand for characteristic Chinese products, with order volumes continuing to climb. A Gansu agricultural specialty export enterprise, for example, is already planning to build a new factory in Xinjiang to expand capacity to keep up with rapidly growing order volumes. Factories with advantages in raw materials and production capacity can tap into this demand to open up new growth curves.

2. Product development direction: Overseas markets have clear personalized, scenario-specific demand. The successful pink drill set developed for the Valentine's Day gifting scenario is a prime example. Factories need to deliver customized design aligned with overseas consumption scenarios to achieve higher sales.

3. Insights for digital e-commerce transformation: Traditional factories can transform by building their own private label cross-border e-commerce business, bypassing intermediaries to reach overseas consumers directly. This significantly boosts product added value, delivers higher profit margins than OEM/ODM models, and allows factories to build their own brand equity. The transformation of Hangzhou's Great Star Industrial, which has maintained double-digit growth for eight consecutive years, is a strong proven example. The Chinese government also offers multiple policy incentives to support factories transforming into cross-border e-commerce.

China's cross-border e-commerce industry is currently in a period of rapid growth, generating a large volume of new service demand. Key takeaways are summarized below:

1. Industry development trends: China's cross-border e-commerce exports grew 19.6% year-on-year in 2023, maintaining an overall high growth trajectory. A growing number of traditional foreign trade enterprises and local characteristic industrial cluster companies are starting to lay out cross-border e-commerce global expansion, and brand-driven globalization has become the industry's mainstream direction, with overall market size continuing to expand.

2. Core pain points for clients: New small and medium-sized cross-border entrants generally face shortages of startup capital and professional talent. Traditional enterprises transforming into cross-border e-commerce need support for brand operations, localized product R&D and operations, along with intellectual property protection services.

3. Solution directions and opportunities: The Chinese government plans to train 100,000 cross-border e-commerce professionals this year, creating opportunities for service providers to enter the talent training track. To meet enterprises' brand globalization demand, providers can launch supporting solutions including localized operations, intellectual property services and overseas warehouse services. They can also align with the "cross-border e-commerce plus industrial clusters" development direction to provide integrated services for industrial cluster enterprises.

The rapid growth of cross-border e-commerce exports is bringing new development opportunities for platforms. Key insights are as follows:

1. Core merchant demand: Merchants of all types share demand for accessing emerging markets. Small and medium-sized merchants from characteristic industrial clusters rely on platforms to reach overseas buyers and enter international markets. Traditional enterprises transforming into cross-border e-commerce need platform support to build their own brands and connect directly with end consumers. Merchants also require supporting services including intellectual property protection and talent training.

2. Recruitment direction: Platforms can expand their layout in emerging markets along the Belt and Road route to meet merchants' demand for accessing Russian and Central Asian markets. They can roll out targeted merchant recruitment policies for local characteristic industrial clusters such as agricultural specialties and hardware tools, to attract characteristic merchants with geographic indication certifications and production capacity advantages to join the platform.

3. Operations and management optimization: Platforms can launch supporting operational services including brand cultivation and intellectual property protection aligned with merchants' brand transformation needs, to help merchants build their own independent brands. This aligns with the industry's current shift from price competition to brand building, and also improves platform merchants' competitiveness and user retention. Platforms should also align with government policy directions to mitigate compliance risks.

China's cross-border e-commerce export sector is seeing multiple new developments, serving as a new research case for foreign trade transformation. Key findings are summarized below:

1. New industry development trends: China's cross-border e-commerce exports continue to see rapid growth, reaching 1.83 trillion yuan in 2023, up 19.6% year-on-year, and have become a new growth driver for overall foreign trade. By the end of 2023, Chinese cross-border e-commerce enterprises had registered more than 30,000 trademarks overseas, and brand-driven globalization has become the industry's mainstream direction, rewriting the old pattern of Chinese exports relying solely on OEM manufacturing and price competition.

2. Business model innovation: Two new proven business models have emerged worthy of research. The first is the model where characteristic agricultural regions leverage cross-border e-commerce to export geographic indication agricultural specialties directly to overseas markets, driving local industrial upgrading. The second is the transformation model where traditional foreign trade factories shift to private label cross-border e-commerce, bypassing intermediaries to reach end consumers directly and boost product added value. Both models have been validated, with leading players achieving double-digit growth for multiple consecutive years.

3. New policy trends: The Chinese government will release multiple supporting policies this year, including measures to expand exports, promote overseas warehouse construction, advance the "cross-border e-commerce plus industrial clusters" model, and release an intellectual property protection guideline. The policy framework for the industry is gradually maturing, creating a enabling environment for industrial development.