Cross-border e-commerce, as a new trade model emerging in the digital economy era, is increasingly becoming an important engine for promoting the transformation and upgrading of private enterprises and expanding international markets.
As global consumer spending shrinks again, cross-border e-commerce has moved from “barbaric growth” to “intensive farming.”
Relevant data show that my country’s cross-border e-commerce import and export volume will reach 2.75 trillion yuan in 2025, an increase of 69.7% compared with 2020.
The industry is shifting from “barbaric growth” relying on traffic and supply chain advantages to stock competition that tests comprehensive operational efficiency. Supply chain intelligence and overseas warehouse construction are reshaping the industry structure, and branding and compliance operations have become the key to breakthrough.
The cross-border e-commerce industry is currently showing a steady growth trend, but it faces challenges such as rising costs and policy compliance. Emerging markets and technology drivers have become key opportunities.
Relevant data shows that global e-commerce sales will reach US$8 trillion in 2025, a year-on-year increase of approximately 5% – 8%. The growth rate is stable but the resilience is significant.
China’s cross-border e-commerce import and export volume will be 2.63 trillion yuan in 2024 (a year-on-year increase of 10.8%), accounting for 6.18% of the total foreign trade value, and has increased more than 10 times in the past five years.
Europe and the United States are still the main markets (accounting for 53.6% of China’s exports), but the growth rate in Southeast Asia and the Middle East exceeds 15%, and Latin America has outstanding potential.
Online sales in the U.S. market increased by 7% – 9% during the holiday season, indicating stable consumer demand.
In the context of changing trade rules, compliance, supply chain localization, technology and capital efficiency have become core competitiveness, and the space for low-price strategies has narrowed. The cross-border market has bid farewell to its barbaric growth and entered the brand era of “quality is king”.
Experts pointed out that the platform ecology has shifted from “incremental dividends” to “competition for inventory”, and it will be difficult to reproduce the influx of new sellers in the short term.
On January 15, the General Administration of Customs announced that it would replicate and promote 25 cross-border trade facilitation measures across the country, covering aspects such as promoting efficient and smooth cross-border logistics, supporting the development of new business formats and new models, optimizing the special commodity supervision model, improving the level of smart supervision services, and enhancing the effectiveness of benefiting enterprises and convenience for the people.
In 2025, the General Administration of Customs, together with 20 departments including the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Commerce, launched a special campaign to facilitate cross-border trade in 25 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Chongqing, and launched 29 pilot innovative policy measures.
This time, the policy measures focused on promoting efficient and smooth cross-border logistics replication and promotion are the most concentrated, including 7 measures.
The first is to strengthen the docking between channels and transport modes, promote the docking cooperation between important maritime channels such as the “Silk Road Maritime Transport” and cross-border land transport channels such as the China-Europe Railway Express and the New Western Land-Sea Corridor, promote the integration of different cross-border transportation modes, and promote the construction of logistics channels; the second is to deepen the inbound and outbound coordination of multimodal transport in coastal, inland and border areas, and promote the realization of “one entrustment, one order to the end, one settlement, one box to the end” for import and export containers to reduce logistics costs; the third is to support the cross-border train assembly center
construction and development; the fourth is to support the development of international road transport; the fifth is to support the development of the “Aerial Silk Road” and expand multimodal transport services such as “air-to-air transfer”, “air-land combined transport” and “air-rail combined transport”; the sixth is to optimize the operation model of air cargo stations and support the construction of
Set up a front-end cargo station with functions such as air cargo collection, palletizing, security inspection, and customs supervision to promote the development of air logistics; seventh, promote “airside direct” supervision of air ports to reduce pickup, unloading, security inspection, etc., improve efficiency, and reduce costs.
my country uses APEC as a platform to proactively connect with international economic and trade rules, and the adaptability of foreign trade rules continues to improve.
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The 3.0 version of the ASEAN Free Trade Area has been upgraded and implemented. Tariff concessions and rules are coordinated and coordinated; the scope of mutual recognition of certified economic operators (AEO) continues to expand, the customs clearance time of enterprises is shortened by 30% to 50%, and the inspection rate is reduced by 60%; the number of trade documents
The digitalization initiative has taken effect, with cross-border e-commerce customs clearance efficiency increased by 20% and compliance costs reduced by 30% to 40%; mutual recognition of inspection and quarantine standards in agricultural products, electronic products and other fields has been accelerated, repeated testing has been effectively reduced, and export channels have become smoother.
Chang Hui, a second-level inspector of the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce, said that in the next step, the Ministry of Commerce will also promote the healthy, sustainable and innovative development of cross-border e-commerce by improving support policies, strengthening the cultivation of entities, and actively participating in international cooperation.
Among them, in terms of international cooperation, we will promote the inclusion of cross-border e-commerce related issues under multilateral and bilateral mechanisms, support qualified comprehensive pilot zones to carry out international exchanges, continue to improve the level of trade facilitation, create an open, inclusive and fair development environment, and share development results with relevant countries.
Overseas warehouses are not only a key node for cross-border logistics, but also an important pivot for companies to expand overseas markets.
Overseas warehousing service, simply put, is a one-stop hosting service that first “stores” the goods at the sales destination, and then takes care of, sorting, packaging, and delivery.
It compresses the complex process that was originally divided into three stages: first-leg transportation, warehousing management, and local distribution into “a game of chess”: goods in, orders out, and local distribution, all in one step.
Overseas warehouses have the following advantages: timeliness is extremely fast, and cross-border logistics is most afraid of “stuck”. Overseas warehouses deliver goods locally, and the average timeliness is shortened by more than 30%.
Direct cost reduction, the comprehensive cost of first-leg ocean freight + local distribution is usually 20% – 40% lower than direct air freight.
Order processing is accelerated, the warehouse works 24 hours a day, and orders are shipped out on the same day, so you are not afraid of liquidation during peak seasons.
Trade links have been shortened, turning the traditional “China → Overseas Buyer” into “Local Warehouse → Buyer”. Risks have been cut into multiple segments, each of which is controllable.
Take Suqian, Jiangsu Province as an example. Suqian promotes the coordinated development of “industrial chain + leading enterprises + overseas warehouses” and guides 13 companies to build or lease overseas warehouses of more than 200,000 square meters in Europe, the United States and countries along the “Belt and Road”. Among them, Suqian Jintu International Logistics Co., Ltd. was approved as the first provincial public overseas warehouse in northern Jiangsu, providing a solid overseas fulcrum for companies to “sell globally” and effectively smoothing the foreign trade supply chain.
At the same time, Suqian Bonded Logistics Center (Type B) successfully passed the provincial joint acceptance and closed the customs operation. It has attracted 10 private enterprises to register, and the import and export value has reached 1.127 billion yuan. It is gradually becoming a bonded import distribution center radiating northern Jiangsu, providing an important platform support for enterprises to carry out bonded import and export, processing value-added and other businesses.
Faced with the complex regional situation and the continuous upgrading of technology, overseas warehouses have made new developments.
From “selling products” to “building an ecosystem”, overseas warehouses are transforming from China’s foreign trade hub to a new engine for expanding the global supply chain.
Experts say that in the future, the evolution of overseas warehouses will be characterized by a deep integration of technology-driven and global layout.
Intelligent and automated upgrades have become the core development direction, network layout accelerates the integration of global resources, and service functions accelerate the extension to the entire value chain, forming an ecosystem integrating “logistics + business flow”.
As policy dividends are released and corporate innovation accelerates, overseas warehouses will push China from “commodity export” to “service export”.
