PYMNTS Daily Data Dive: China’s Cross-Border Ecommerce A Huge Opportunity for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs take note. The trends in the Chinese cross-border eCommerce market represent a huge opportunity for small businesses, according to Cleveland Brown, CEO of Payscout, a global payments provider. The appetite in China for goods from abroad is growing at an unfathomable rate, and one-quarter of the Chinese population is expected to be shopping on foreign-based websites either directly or through third parties by 2020.

In a press release from Payscout on Tuesday (October. 18), the company stated: “We encourage small to medium-sized businesses in particular to prepare themselves for taking advantage of the growing Chinese appetite for goods from abroad.” A higher standard of living and greater exposure to foreign products in China is increasing consumer appetite for goods from abroad. Payscout cited a report from global consulting firm Accenture and AliResearch, which predicts that by 2020, China will be the largest cross-border B2C market with over 200 million Chinese consumers expected to be cross-border shopping within five years.

Here are the numbers:

$1 trillion | The predicted value of the global B2C ecommerce market in 2020; this figure was $230 billion in 2014, according to Payscout

$245 billion | The expected transaction volume of imported goods purchased online by Chinese consumers by 2021

900 million | The number of people globally who will be international online shoppers; their purchases will account for 30 percent of global B2C transactions, according to the Accenture-AliResearch report

70% | The growth in cross-border digital shopping in China in 2015

25% | The percentage of the Chinese population that will be shopping on foreign-based websites or through third parties by 2020, according to eMarketer