In 2026, the entire cross-border e-commerce industry will once again fall into a competitive situation filled with smoke after experiencing turbulent ups and downs.
“Cross-border e-commerce has not slowed down, but has made structural adjustments.” Today, the competitive logic of China’s cross-border e-commerce is undergoing a fundamental change, from the past competition of price and contract performance to the deep water area of competition for brand assets and global minds.
At the “Top Brands Going Overseas Closed Meeting” held in Shenzhen on April 15th by Alibaba’s cross-border platform AliExpress, the leaders of 99 industry leading brands gathered together.
AliExpress President Jing Shi proposed to help 2,000 Chinese brands double their overseas expansion by 2026.
At the same time, four major brands, Yushu, Zhuimi, Li Ning, and Xtep, signed on the spot to join AliExpress’s “Brand+” super brand overseas plan. This seems to announce the end of the era of cross-border e-commerce simply selling goods, and a battle for brand definition rights has begun.
In just two months, three commercial forces from China launched completely different breakthroughs on the other side of the ocean.
In Europe, JD.com Joybuy is trying to reshape the shopping mentality of overseas consumers with the familiar “211 limited-time delivery” logic, sparing no expense to build a fulfillment moat for warehousing and distribution; Pinduoduo launches New Pinmu, goes deep into the factory hinterland, and tries to incubate the “white label” supply chain into a global brand to open up market gaps; AliExpress, at this closed-door meeting, called out the goal of “brands going global overseas”, pushing the competition to a climax.
Data from the Ministry of Commerce show that China’s cross-border e-commerce exports are expected to exceed 2.5 trillion yuan in 2025, and the proportion of branded products has increased to more than 45%. The export of self-owned brand products has increased by 12.9% year-on-year, and the trend of “brands going overseas” has accelerated.
In this context, AliExpress, JD.com Joybuy, and Pinduoduo Xinpinmu have all projected domestic proven and mature business models overseas, but there are obvious differences in their overseas paths.
AliExpress is the first platform among the “Four Little Dragons” to bet on the brand track.
In 2025, it made it clear that it would no longer participate in low-price intrusion and move directly towards branding. It launched the “Brand+ Brand Overseas Plan” to create new increments for the brand at half the cost of Amazon.
This conference is a continuation of this strategy, and the target target has expanded from Amazon big sales to more mature Chinese brands and Tmall brands.
AliExpress follows an open “brand empowerment” path, which embodies Alibaba’s “platform genes” and opens up its brand marketing and user operation capabilities to Chinese brands through “Brand+” to help them gain a foothold overseas.
JD.com’s brand overseas adopts the strategy of building logistics infrastructure first, investing first and then doing business, targeting mid-to-high-end consumer groups with high requirements for logistics timeliness and after-sales service.
On the one hand, Joybuy enriches the platform supply through its self-operated model. On the other hand, it builds its own warehousing, distribution and local fulfillment system in Europe to open up consumers’ minds with “211 limited time delivery”. In essence, it is building a “mini version of JD self-operated” overseas.
Pinduoduo’s new Pinmu focuses on the core gene of “supply chain”, reversely defines supply based on demand, and is deeply tied to factories to build a global Chinese brand from scratch.
This is consistent with its domestic approach of “emphasis on supply chain, light on brand”, choosing to build its own brand.
These three paths have their own advantages and disadvantages.
JD.com’s model focuses on asset investment, targeting the European middle class, and has high barriers to service depth. However, seller participation costs and capital requirements are high, and it is difficult for leading brands to control user assets and brand dominance.
Xinpinmu can empower white-label products to grow into small and medium-sized brands, but incubated brands are easily bound to the platform and lack space for independent development, so they are more suitable for start-up brands at the supply chain end.
AliExpress’s open empowerment model allows brands to maintain operational autonomy and is suitable for all types of brands, but it is highly dependent on the brand’s own strength.
The size of China’s cross-border e-commerce market is expected to exceed 4.4 trillion yuan in 2026, with a growth rate of 16.3%. Growth dividends will only flow to players who understand brands and refine operations.
More and more brands are choosing multi-channel layout, and Chinese platforms are encroaching on overseas market share.
AliExpress has become the choice for many brands to go overseas because its lightweight entry model meets the low-cost overseas needs of most brands. In the past two years, the sales of the top brands on the platform have increased significantly.
This year, AliExpress will continue to increase its brand strategy and help more Chinese brands go overseas.
Today’s cross-border e-commerce competition is about who is more compliant and localized, and who can build a “system” of supply chain and brand.
The different paths of the three major platforms provide diversified references for Chinese e-commerce brands to go global. Brands should understand the positioning of the platforms instead of just chasing temporary dividends.
