On April 29, the 2026 First National Games of the Cross-border E-commerce Industry kicked off, using sports as a link to link the industrial ecology, and to promote the era of cross-border practitioners being good and working together. It has become an important opportunity for the industry to unite and discuss development.
With the theme of “Cross-border Travel with Full Capacity”, this National Games includes golf, Frisbee, basketball, pickleball, badminton and other sports, and is committed to creating industry super IP throughout the year.
The event is guided by the Longgang District Commerce Bureau and supported by relevant enterprises. It is jointly organized by the Shenzhen Longgang District Cross-border E-commerce Industry Association and Huilan Culture (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., with Jizhi Express as the overall sponsor and Shigei as the sponsor of the golf event.
As an important engine for the steady growth of foreign trade, Shenzhen’s cross-border e-commerce industry continues to maintain a strong momentum of development.
Data show that Shenzhen’s total foreign trade import and export volume will reach 4.55 trillion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 1.4%, of which cross-border e-commerce import and export volume will reach 284.5 billion yuan, ranking first among large and medium-sized cities in the country for four consecutive years.
Policy dividends continue to be released, overseas warehouse layout is accelerated, “Made in Shenzhen” is selling well all over the world, and the proportion of Shenzhen sellers on the Amazon platform is increasing year by year. Public data in 2024 shows that the number of Shenzhen sellers has reached 100,000.
“The cross-border e-commerce industry is developing rapidly, and most of the practitioners are young people who are motivated and hardworking, which is highly consistent with the sports spirit.” The president of the Shenzhen Longgang District Cross-border E-commerce Industry Association said that the current overseas online consumption penetration rate continues to increase, and China’s e-commerce development
The obvious advantages of speed and supporting resources, coupled with the Internet genes of practitioners born in the 80s, 90s, and 00s, have promoted cross-border overseas business from the 1.0 era of “goods to port” to a new stage of “goods directly to users”, and localization has become a new direction for industry development.
The deep penetration of AI technology has become an important driving force for the transformation of the cross-border e-commerce industry.
AI can effectively reduce the operating costs of enterprises. In core aspects such as picture production and video production, it can reduce costs to extremely low levels, allowing small and medium-sized sellers to achieve efficient content production. At the same time, AI large language models play an important role in customer service, transaction processing, etc., and promote the process, standardization, and systematic development of the industry.
Many cross-border e-commerce companies have increased their investment in AI and IT, and the IT teams of some companies with 1,000 employees account for 20% – 30%. The application of AI in business process optimization, data collection and analysis, product description optimization, etc. has effectively improved corporate operational efficiency.
Shenzhen Longgang proposed “all in AI”, which provides a good policy environment for the application of AI in the field of cross-border e-commerce and helps the industry achieve “intelligent change” upgrades.
Industry competition is becoming increasingly fierce, and compliance, refinement, and diversification have become new development trends.
In order to promote the construction of enterprise compliance demonstration zones, relevant units jointly drafted the “Shenzhen Transactional Cross-border E-Commerce Enterprise Compliance Management Guidelines (Draft for Comments)”, which was publicly solicited for opinions on April 27. It covers 23 key domestic and overseas business areas such as intellectual property and data export, and helps enterprises establish compliance systems and prevent and control transaction risks.
At present, most leading cross-border e-commerce companies in Shenzhen have complete compliance systems, but small, medium, micro, and start-up companies still need to make up for their shortcomings. The “Draft for Comments” also systematically sorts out the main compliance risks in their domestic and overseas operations.
Industry insiders who have been in the industry for many years said that compared with five or six years ago, the cross-border e-commerce industry has undergone significant changes.
Sellers on traditional large platforms are gradually embracing new channels such as independent websites, TK, and Pinduoduo. The iteration of gameplay and categories is accelerating. The market is extending from the traditional European and American regions to emerging markets such as the Middle East, Mexico, Brazil, and Southeast Asia. Among them, Latin America has become a hot market recently, which puts forward higher requirements for sellers’ category control and market adaptability.
The industry has shifted from the barbaric growth during the traffic bonus period to the branding and refined development stage. Since 2025, compliance has become the focus of the industry. Companies need to delve into core categories and improve product quality and customer experience in order to gain a firm foothold in the competition.
The optimization of overseas warehouse layout has injected new vitality into the development of the industry.
In recent years, the cross-border e-commerce industry has gradually transformed from official warehouses to third-party overseas warehouses. Third-party overseas warehouses can realize centralized distribution of goods across multiple platforms, help sellers reduce inventory costs, and provide value-added services such as return shipping and return repairs. The Chinese service team can more accurately match the needs of domestic operators, becoming an important support for enterprises to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
This echoes Shenzhen’s policy initiatives to promote the development of cross-border e-commerce overseas warehouses and publish local standards for the “Cross-border E-commerce Overseas Warehouse Service Quality Requirements”, further improving the industry service system.
