Against the backdrop of complex and volatile global economic conditions and intensified market volatility, the cross-border e-commerce industry has shown surprising resilience.
Customs data shows that my country’s cross-border e-commerce imports and exports in 2025 will be 2.75 trillion yuan, an increase of 69.7% over 2020.
“Even in a market with higher volatility than in previous years, we see that the ‘rigid demand’ of cross-border e-commerce customers is still strong.” Relevant sources said.
As of January 2026, the total number of loans approved by cross-border financial service provider Fengbo International has exceeded US$7 billion, and the financing amount facilitated in 2025 alone will be close to US$4 billion, doubling.
Although uncertainty in the global market is increasing, companies that can respond flexibly to changes are trying to seize new opportunities and use funds to build longer-term competitiveness.
So, when the industry moves from extensive distribution to intensive cultivation, where will the money of overseas companies go?
Changes in capital flow
First of all, the focus of corporate capital investment has shifted.
A few years ago, funds were mainly used for purchasing goods or operating costs, but now they are more invested in brand building.
In the early days of cross-border e-commerce, the business model was relatively simple. It relied on China’s supply chain, put cost-effective products on the platform, and earned traffic through advertising to earn the price difference. The core of capital circulation was “goods.”
But now that platform traffic costs are rising and competition is becoming increasingly homogeneous, establishing brand recognition, gaining consumer trust, and generating premium capabilities have become the only way for companies to go. This requires a longer capital investment cycle and a nature that is more “investment” than “turnover.”
Many merchants will conduct in-depth research on consumer preferences in target markets and design products and marketing content for specific cultural scenarios. These require continuous investment and no direct sales returns can be seen in the early stage.
Parallel with branding, there is the “pre-positioning” of the supply chain and the “localization” of operations.
Many companies are gradually shifting from the “drop shipping” model to leasing or building their own warehouses in overseas destination countries to prepare goods overseas in advance.
This shortens the time to market for products and improves consumer experience and repurchase rates, but it also changes the company’s capital demand structure.
Fund management has changed from being relatively centralized to being decentralized into different monetary and regulatory environments, with more advanced and complex needs.
Companies not only have to prepay funds for overseas inventory, but also deal with local operating expenses such as manpower, taxation, and compliance.
The third stream is technology, especially investment in data tools and AI applications.
More and more customers are beginning to invest in AI product selection tools, intelligent advertising systems, inventory forecasting algorithms, etc.
Entrepreneurs believe more in the insights provided by data, and the money is spent to improve the “certainty” and unit efficiency of the business.
The deep pain points of cross-border finance
Brand, localization, and technology form a coherent system in which funds circulate, and financial services must understand this system.
Despite strong and increasingly complex funding needs, there are still deep pain points in cross-border financial services that can meet these needs.
Traditional financial institutions are accustomed to looking at the “past” of enterprises, while overseas enterprises need financial support based on the “future”. This “mismatch” makes it difficult for many high-growth enterprises to obtain financial support that matches their development speed.
Fengbo International uses AI models to predict the company’s future business model, capital flow and growth dynamics, and provides financial services accordingly.
But the biggest pain point facing overseas companies now is the contradiction between the fragmentation of financial services and the systemic nature of corporate needs.
Mature companies will look at the matching of funds with business goals and the long-term returns after investment.
AI can predict the pace of growth and funding gaps in advance, dynamically adjust the amount and pace of financing, avoid over-expansion, and support the stability of growth.
In a market with increased volatility, the biggest anxiety for overseas merchants may not be lack of money, but making wrong judgments based on complex information.
Fengbo International is moving from a single capital platform to a comprehensive service system, trying to repair the market information mechanism, and its value may exceed finance itself.
The cross-border e-commerce industry is shifting from “barbaric growth” to “intensive cultivation”, and certainty in this era of rapid change may be more precious than capital itself.
