Cross-border e-commerce helps small biz exports

Xie Huan, a staffer of a kitchenware manufacturing firm, had meticulously prepared a pile of company introduction booklets in English for the cross-border e-commerce trade fair held in Southwest China's Chongqing from May 18-21.

"We embarked on cross-border e-commerce business a few years ago," said Xie, who is in charge of the cross-border e-commerce business at Chongqing Deng's Kitchenware Manufacturing Co Ltd, a company with a history spanning more than 100 years in kitchenware manufacturing.

Xie's company is based in Dazu district, Chongqing. Its forging technology has been listed on the city's intangible cultural heritage protection list. Today, its products including kitchen knives, have been exported to the United States, European countries and Southeast Asian nations.

"We hope to attract more international customers and platforms through this event, so that we can expand overseas markets through cross-border e-commerce. We are highly optimistic about our overseas business in the post-pandemic era," said Xie, whose company had set up a booth at the trade fair, a major event of the fifth Western China International Fair for Investment and Trade, which kicked off on May 18.

The fair attracted more than 500 enterprises from home and abroad, along with more than 2,200 purchasing agents.

Chongqing YGM Technology Co Ltd, which specializes in manufacturing gaming mice and keyboards, was one of the participants hoping to unlock cross-border e-commerce business opportunities.

"Cross-border e-commerce provides a crucial channel for our exports. Last year, our export value reached approximately 10 million yuan ($1.42 million), with half of the volume coming from cross-border e-commerce," said Pan Yangang, the company's CEO.

"Cross-border e-commerce is undoubtedly a trend," said Wu Na, a business manager at a technology company, adding the company thrived in the domestic market for 13 years and began to carry out exports in 2020 in partnership with OSELL, a Chongqing-based company dedicated to providing cross-border trade services.

"OSELL helped our products enter the Indonesian market, leading to a significant breakthrough in our export business. Our sales exceeded 8 million yuan in 2020," said Wu.

"We focused on cross-border e-commerce services at the outset, but we have developed more services for our customers including finance and sales channels," said Zeng Jianwen, vice-chairman of OSELL Group. The company says it has over 50 offline service centers in China and has established overseas channel service centers in nearly 30 countries.

Cross-border e-commerce has become a new driving force for China's foreign trade development, and a new channel for enterprises' transformation, upgrading and high-quality development. Meanwhile, an increasing number of small and medium-sized enterprises consider cross-border e-commerce an essential tool to expand their international business.

In 2022, Chongqing's cross-border e-commerce reached 40.7 billion yuan, up 27.9 percent year-on-year, while the figure for the whole country reached 2.11 trillion yuan, up 9.8 percent compared to the previous year.

Recognizing the immense potential of SMEs, many global e-commerce platforms including Amazon, eBay and AliExpress also participated in the fair, seeking cooperation opportunities.