Since Alibaba AliExpress (Dalian) Cross-border E-commerce Industrial Park (hereinafter referred to as “AliExpress”) settled in the High-tech Zone in May last year, Sheng Liang, the general manager of the park, has had an extremely busy schedule.
There are usually many visiting groups, and he even needs to check WeChat to retrieve the list of visitors who come one after another. Among them are large government visiting groups led by key leaders and participated by many government departments.
For the cross-border e-commerce industry, which has maintained double-digit growth in the past few years, the settlement of AliExpress, the industry leader, has caused high-intensity co-frequency resonance throughout the province.
Its core goal is clear, which is to use the core traction of this industry leader to further accelerate the “key engine” of cross-border e-commerce.
Cross-border e-commerce is called a “key engine” because it is not only the core driving force for foreign trade growth, but also a strategic channel connecting Chinese manufacturing and global consumption.
In port cities like Dalian, this engine effect is particularly obvious.
For the traditional manufacturing industry, logging into e-commerce platforms is an in-depth reconstruction from “behind-the-scenes manufacturing” to “facing the world directly.” This is not only the superposition of sales channels, but also forces companies to conduct a comprehensive transformation in production models, profit structures, and risk control.
For port cities, this is an advanced transformation from “channel economy” to “hub economy”.
So, why did AliExpress choose to go north at this time?
Sheng Liang said that the rapid rise of AI has played a decisive role in AliExpress settling in Dalian and deeply exploring the Northeast market.
As a native of Dalian, Sheng Liang said frankly that in the field of cross-border e-commerce, there is a gap between Dalian and cities such as Shenzhen and Hangzhou in terms of relevant talents in pictures, videos, copywriting, and data analysis.
The rapid rise of AI has provided sufficient technical support for AliExpress to deeply explore the Northeast market.
He said: “AI technology can solve 90% of the previously existing talent and technology bottlenecks.”
Judging from company visits, although the current participation of production-oriented enterprises in Northeast China in e-commerce is low, most companies have expressed positive willingness to join cross-border e-commerce platforms.
Achieving the transition from manufacturing to intelligent manufacturing can enable traditional manufacturing companies to undergo a radical transformation, such as getting rid of low-profit OEMs, building a brand moat, and achieving flexibility in production models.
However, the challenges are equally severe. Operational complexity has increased dramatically and compliance costs are high. Enterprises need to shift from pure production to all-round operations that are proficient in logistics, after-sales, cross-border payments, and platform rules.
In any case, integrating into cross-border e-commerce is not to be missed.
At present, the most important task for AliExpress is to lay the foundation, that is, e-commerce training for enterprises and universities.
Sheng Liang believes that this process of laying the foundation will take about a year and a half.
Open source data shows that in the past three years, the annual growth rate of Dalian’s cross-border e-commerce has exceeded 20%, which is significantly higher than the growth rate of traditional foreign trade. It has become the core driving force for the optimization of regional foreign trade structure, and the compound growth rate AliExpress has set for itself is much higher than this.
As the first cross-border e-commerce leader to settle in Northeast China, AliExpress is expected to bring new development acceleration to the industry.
