Cross-Border, Online Food Sales Grow In China

There’s no doubt that the online world of selling is changing the game for retailers everywhere. One country where this is most apparent is China.

The areas that have seen the most action in terms of online purchases have been in the cross-border and online food sales sectors. For today’s Chinese consumer, these areas have skyrocketed as of late.

In the last couple of years, Chinese shoppers have picked up on buying goods via cross-border commerce. While 2015 saw a 112 percent uptick in purchases made outside of the country, 2016 saw an 86 percent increase in goods bought across the border. According to Chinese research firm iResearch, online food sales is growing at a rate of 82 percent annually.

What are the main reasons contributing to this sudden surge in Chinese eCommerce growth?

There factors contributing to China’s sudden growth in the eCommerce arena are mostly in part due to its government’s decision to make it easier. In 2013, the country implemented policy reforms that helped increase the online sale of foreign goods. One of the big aspects of this reform that helped boost online sales was the reduction in duty tax on cross-border eCommerce goods. Through this incentive, more Chinese consumers were willing to make increased amount of purchases online.

Now that the eCommerce walls have come down, companies like Alibaba and Amazon are refining international shipping and payments for the Chinese consumers. As such, Alibaba’s Tmall has seen its imported products to Chinese consumers double in 2016. Consumers of goods in China are so enamored with the online shopping of foreign goods experience that Amazon saw over 10 million orders from the country last year.