The turning point of the “15th Five-Year Plan” for cross-border e-commerce has arrived. From distributing goods and selling goods to taking brands overseas, this step must be passed.
Recently, the statement on cross-border e-commerce in the “15th Five-Year Plan” has sent a clear signal: the window period for the past reliance on distribution of goods, low prices, and traffic dividends is rapidly closing.
Data from the General Administration of Customs show that my country’s cross-border e-commerce imports and exports will reach 2.75 trillion yuan in 2025, an increase of nearly 70% compared to 2020.
This number may seem eye-catching, but the problems hidden behind it cannot be underestimated.
On the one hand, the trade policies of the United States and the European Union have become increasingly strict, leading to a significant increase in compliance costs; on the other hand, the “small fragmentation” situation in the industry has not yet been resolved, and the homogeneity phenomenon is serious. Many merchants are selling similar products, such as chargers, etc., eventually falling into a price war, and profit margins are severely compressed.
However, changes that really deserve attention are quietly taking place.
The “15th Five-Year Plan” clearly states that “promoting innovative development of trade”, experts from the Ministry of Commerce Research Institute said, this means that cross-border e-commerce has officially switched from “scale expansion” to “quality improvement”.
To put it simply, we can no longer just focus on selling more orders, but we must think about how to build a brand.
An interesting change is that in the past, people thought that cross-border e-commerce mainly sold small commodities, clothing, shoes and hats, etc. Now, auto parts, AI glasses and even robots have also begun to be sold through cross-border channels.
The upgrade of product categories has brought about an increase in profit margins.
In the final analysis, the core of this round of transformation is “brand going overseas.”
However, going global is not just about changing the packaging and putting on a logo. It is also about establishing a standardized financial and taxation system, optimizing the supply chain, and using platform data to conduct accurate market analysis.
Whoever can take the lead in establishing these capabilities will have an advantage in future competition and avoid continuing to fall into the quagmire of price wars.
This leap from “scale expansion” to “quality leap” is not a multiple-choice question for all cross-border practitioners, but a must-answer question.
In the context of the “15th Five-Year Plan”, cross-border e-commerce must actively embrace transformation and aim to export brands overseas in order to gain greater development space in the global market.
Only by continuously improving brand value can we remain invincible in the increasingly fierce international competition.
