Cross-border e-commerce has become a new engine for Tianjin's foreign trade development

At present, cross-border e-commerce has become a new highlight of foreign trade innovation and development and a new driving force for transformation and upgrading. The reporter learned from an interview in Tianjin that after being listed as a comprehensive pilot zone for cross-border e-commerce, Tianjin's cross-border e-commerce business has risen rapidly, the scale of the industry has continued to expand, and it has played an important role in promoting the development of imports and exports.

--Three years of pilot projects have seen full bloom, with Tianjin's cross-border e-commerce industry taking shape

In October 2015, the General Administration of Customs listed Tianjin as a pilot city for cross-border e-commerce services; in January 2016, the State Council approved the establishment of a cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone in Tianjin. For Tianjin, the gradual expansion of open cities in the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone is not only the country's recognition of the Internet innovation model, but also an important way to accelerate the transformation of traditional foreign trade and support innovation and the development of Internet companies.

Liu Fuqiang, deputy director of Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Commerce, introduced that many cross-border e-commerce clusters in Tianjin have taken shape, with a cross-border e-commerce bonded warehouse area of ​​more than 300,000 square meters. Industry giants such as JD Global Shopping, Tmall Global, NetEase Kaola, Vipshop, Xiaohongshu, Suning, and Amazon have all settled in Tianjin, and the city has registered more than 300 cross-border e-commerce and payment, logistics and other related companies. Tianjin has built a convenient and efficient cross-border e-commerce comprehensive service platform, with a peak daily processing volume of more than 1 million orders.

It is understood that Tianjin has initially formed seven cross-border e-commerce innovation pilot zones, including Dongjiang Bonded Port Area, Tianjin Port Bonded Area, Airport Aviation Logistics Zone, Central Business District Yujiabao Global Shopping, Dongli Aviation Business District, Wuqing Development Zone, and Hongqiao Dalong NetDragon Factory, presenting a cross-border e-commerce industry layout with staggered aggregation, complementary advantages, and coordinated advancement.

In terms of cross-border e-commerce import business, the cross-border e-commerce bonded stocking business centered on Dongjiang Bonded Port Area and Tianjin Port Bonded Area has accelerated its development. JD Global Shopping has built a 30,000-square-meter full-category stocking warehouse in the northern region in Tianjin, and the order volume exceeded 4 million in 2018. So far, Tianjin has registered more than 200 cross-border e-commerce import companies and nearly 40,000 registered commodities. According to the data of Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Commerce, in 2018, Tianjin's cross-border e-commerce imported a total of 19.669 million orders, a year-on-year increase of 325%; the value of bonded imports into the zone was 4.637 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 288%; and the import sales volume was 2.934 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 155%.

In order to promote the development of cross-border e-commerce export business, Tianjin implemented the "zero-breaking plan" for foreign trade enterprises. Through training and publicity, it actively promoted the "electrical contact" of traditional foreign trade enterprises and manufacturing enterprises, promoted the business development of B2B platforms such as Ali Yidatong and Dunhuang.com in Tianjin, and cultivated more than 1,000 new transformation enterprises. Support enterprises to use platforms such as eBay, Amazon, Wish, and Ali Express to carry out cross-border B2C export business, encourage enterprises to declare customs clearance through comprehensive service platforms, and realize the "sunshine" development of B2C business. According to data from the eBay platform, Tianjin's traditional advantageous industries such as furniture, home decoration, toys, bicycles, and electric vehicles have begun to open up new export channels with the help of cross-border e-commerce, and have maintained a high-speed growth trend in recent years.

--The "overseas warehouse" model strengthens the advantages of cross-border e-commerce

As a trade and logistics center in the north, Tianjin has inherent advantages in developing overseas warehouse business. The reporter learned from the interview that the cross-border e-commerce exports in the north are mainly large consumer goods, such as furniture, bicycles and accessories, musical instruments and auto parts, which are suitable for developing overseas warehouse models with higher customer experience and added value.

The reporter learned from the Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Commerce that by promoting the development of cross-border e-commerce overseas warehouse business through various means such as integration, self-construction and leasing of qualified enterprises, some cross-border e-commerce companies in Tianjin have established more than 20 overseas warehouses in major cross-border e-commerce import and export markets such as the United States, Europe, Japan, and South Korea, with a storage area of ​​more than 60,000 square meters, achieving cross-border e-commerce export transactions of more than 50 million US dollars and imports of more than 2 billion yuan, effectively driving the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce in the city.

According to reports, in order to promote the construction of overseas warehouses, Tianjin has formulated construction standards for cross-border e-commerce overseas warehouses, identified a number of cross-border e-commerce public overseas warehouses, and provided financial support to support enterprises to improve and enhance the cross-border e-commerce supply chain system, reduce logistics costs, and improve the quality and efficiency of overseas warehousing, customs clearance, distribution, display and other services for cross-border e-commerce enterprises. At the same time, based on the export business of cross-border e-commerce overseas warehouses, innovative credit insurance support policies, and in conjunction with Sinosure and foreign trade comprehensive service companies, provide cross-border e-commerce with a full-process overall supply chain solution including application for credit - domestic procurement - customs declaration export - international logistics - credit insurance financing - foreign exchange settlement and tax refund.

Tianjin Jinmaotong Supply Chain Management Service Co., Ltd. was recognized as a pilot enterprise for Tianjin's overseas warehouse construction by the Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Commerce in December last year. The company established Tianjin's only overseas warehouse in Australia in Sydney. According to the company's chairman Xu Xiaopeng, the company began to plan the construction of overseas warehouses in 2015. In 2018, the export volume reached US$130 million, and the export products included bicycles, furniture, electronic products, etc.

"The construction of the 'Belt and Road' has brought opportunities for traditional domestic enterprises to 'go global', and cross-border e-commerce has given wings to this process." Liu Jianhua, general manager of Tianjin Zhongwu Network Technology Co., Ltd., told reporters that as one of the first batch of comprehensive foreign trade service pilot enterprises in Tianjin, the company has deeply cultivated the building materials market in countries along the "Belt and Road", used self-operated e-commerce means to carry out cross-border building materials wholesale trade, and established overseas offices and overseas warehouses in Qatar and Ghana, opening up a broad market space along the "Belt and Road".

--Five major measures are needed to support leapfrog development

A relevant person in charge of the Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Commerce said that cross-border e-commerce is still in its infancy, and companies involved are still exploring models in practice. They need the necessary attention and support from government departments in charge to help them continuously improve their operational and management capabilities.

It is reported that in the next step, Tianjin will continue to focus on the construction of "two platforms, five foundations, and eight systems", vigorously promote the construction of online comprehensive service window platforms and offline innovation and experimental parks, further innovate regulatory service methods, accelerate the cultivation of cross-border e-commerce market entities, increase industrial chain investment promotion, build a cross-border e-commerce industry cluster, and further expand the scale of cross-border e-commerce imports and exports.

The first is to build and improve a comprehensive cross-border e-commerce service platform, expand tax, foreign exchange, financial and other functions, and realize the full online process of cross-border e-commerce export B2B and B2C business.

The second is to adopt a differentiated development model, further promote the development of existing cross-border e-commerce innovation pilot zones, accelerate the planning and layout of the park and construction investment promotion, support the construction of infrastructure such as equipment updates and network upgrades in the park, and promote the park to expand its business scale.

Third, innovate and optimize regulatory measures. The Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Commerce will work with the customs, national tax, foreign exchange and other departments to innovate management and business models based on the needs of enterprises. In particular, it will study innovative financial policies to reduce the financing costs and capital pressure of enterprises through domestic guarantees for foreign loans and supply chain finance.

Fourth, expand business scale with the help of technology. Many companies believe that the use of Internet technology can improve the efficiency of overseas warehouse management, strengthen warehouse integration, and achieve resource sharing. At the same time, we should promote the integration of online and offline, and use overseas warehouses to establish Tianjin brand display centers.

Fifth, strengthen training to improve the awareness of traditional enterprises to go overseas. Through the Tianjin Cross-border E-commerce Association, in cooperation with colleges and training institutions, a series of training activities were carried out to guide each district to carry out cross-border e-commerce specific business knowledge training and operation process training. Xu Xiaopeng introduced that Tianjin Jinmaotong Supply Chain Management Service Co., Ltd. cooperated with Australia and domestic colleges and universities to carry out cross-border e-commerce training to improve the awareness of traditional trading companies to go overseas, combine cross-border e-commerce with Tianjin's traditional advantageous industries, and promote the development of Tianjin's exports.