Cross-border E-commerce Market Remained Firm During Double 11 Shopping Festival

By Joe Zhang

The 2021 Double 11 shopping festival has now come to an end. Cross-border e-businesses such as JD Worldwide， Ymatou， Lazada， AliExpress and Shopee took part in the festival， and have recently released their performance reports.

The overall turnover of JD Worldwide during the festival increased by 11 times year-on-year， the sales volume of best-selling single products of global duty-free direct shopping stores on Ymatou topped RMB 100 million in one hour， Lazada took half the time it did the previous year to reach the first USD 100 million in terms of the transaction volume， the variety of goods purchased from AliExpress increased by more than 60%， while Shopee had 20 million visits in the first hour. At the same time， the number of cross-border e-commerce orders given customs clearance has also risen quickly. According to the statistics announced， customs offices in Guangdong， Beijing and other seven cities in China gave clearance to a total of 77，153，100 cross-border e-commerce orders during the Double 11 festival.

Besides this， other customs offices and integrated free trade zones also recorded booms in cross-border e-commerce orders. According to the latest data from Ningbo， Guangzhou， Tianjin， Yiwu， Chengdu， Weihai， Changsha and Nanchang， during the Double 11 shopping festival， eight cities cleared more than 31 million cross-border e-commerce orders in total.

Significant increases in turnover

According to JD， from 8：00 pm on November 10th to 0：00 pm on November 11th， JD Worldwide had an overall turnover which was 11 times higher year-on-year， and the turnover of nearly 1，000 imported brands increased more than 100% year-on-year. Among them， Shiseido had a turnover which was 26 times higher year-on-year. In addition， the turnover of third-party stores on JD Worldwide increased by 646% year-on-year. The statistics indicated that in the first 4 hours， the top 5 categories of goods in terms of the highest turnover were cell phones， refrigerators， flat-panel TVs， washing machines and air conditioners. The top 5 categories with the highest sales were dairy products， pumping paper， shampoo， cooking oil and cookies and cakes.

According to JD， this Double 11 witnessed the fastest growth for small and medium-sized enterprises， with the number of new brands from SMEs jumping by more than four times year-on-year， and JD saved 78.5% of basic operating costs for those SMEs.

On November 11th， the turnover of the best single products at dutyfree direct shopping stores of the Ymatou live broadcast supply chain topped RMB 100 million in one hour. 30 leading broadcasters on the three platforms of Tiktok， Taobao and Kwai began live streaming at the same time， selling out all global Christmas limited sets， including 20，000 sets of Estée Lauder Christmas gift boxes with a unit price of RMB 759， and 20，000 sets of Lanc？me Christmas gift packages with a unit price of RMB 999. Of these broadcasters， Ni Hongjie recorded a volume of transactions of RMB 25.2 million during the live streaming， while RMB 20.94 million was recorded by Zhang Meng， and RMB 18.27 million by Ma Ke.

On November 11， the crossborder e-commerce platform Shopee began its largest 11.11 promotion ever： 11 million items were sold in the first 5 minutes， and the number of visits in the first 2 hours rose to 5.5 times the normal levels. In the first 2 hours of November 11th， cross-border e-businesses in China had good performances： the bestselling cross-border categories were 3C electronics， beauty and skin care， household and fashion products. Phone brand Realme made a crossborder exclusive debut of the new Realme Narzo 50i， and sold more than 5，000 units in 2 hours in Malaysia. Household mats， 3D wall stickers， multi-layer storage boxes and other household products were also on the best-selling list， while a hair accessories seller sold nearly 8，000 pieces through Shopee Live in Thailand. Besides these， crossborder sellers participating in Double 11 promotions for the first time concluded deals in the first two hours amounting to 2.5 times the amount seen in a usual day.

According to AliExpress， the number of Chinese sellers participating in this years Double 11 increased by 30% from a year ago， delivering more high quality and high priced products to overseas consumers efficiently and quickly. It is worth mentioning that this year， AliExpress carried out many offline activities in major global markets， including holding the first Double 11 party in France. On November 12， Tmall reported the performance of AliExpress on Double 11， indicating that the top 5 export countries for AliExpresss Chinese health products were Russia， Spain， Brazil， France and the United States， the top 5 export countries for pet supplies made in China were Russia， Spain， France， the United States and Brazil， the top 5 single products for Double 11 promotions in Russia were TV player boxes， festival lights， Chinese cell phones， floor mopping robots and car lights， and the top 5 single products in Spain were Chinese cell phones， TVs， floor mopping robots， skateboards and Bluetooth headphones.

On November 12th， the latest data from Lazada， the flagship e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia， showed that sales in Singapore in the first hour were 10 times higher than usual， and those in Vietnam in the first hour doubled compared with last year.

Zhang Zhouping， senior analyst and director of the B2B and Crossborder E-commerce Department of 100EC， stated that the Double 11 shopping festival now is more popular among overseas online consumers. Lazada and AliExpress have been par ticipating in Double 11 promotions for many years as Ali platforms， and have accumulated great experience from seller organization， logistics and delivery， boosting the rapid growth in the number of sellers and products. Through its participation in Double 11 promotions， Shopee has attracted more visitors and improved its user stickiness. Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic， online shopping has become an important choice for many overseas consumers， so the great promotions seen during Double 11 inevitably stimulated hikes in online consumption.

The influence is gradually increasing

The cross-border e-commerce platforms participating in this years Double 11 promotions mainly included Lazada and AliExpress of Ali and Shopee in Southeast Asia. Judging from the latest data， compared to 2020， the number of participating merchants， the transaction volume and other key indicators all had a relatively high growth.

Zhang Zhouping explained that， at present， the Double 11 shopping festival has a gradually growing international influence beyond China， spreading to Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries and regions， although it is still incomparable to Black Friday. However， as Ali and JD keep exploring the international market， the Double 11 shopping festival will get more and more popular around the world.

Mo Daiqing， senior analyst and director of the Online Retail Division of 100EC， said that this years Double 11 attracted many cross-border importing e-commerce platforms， such as JD Worldwide， Tmall Global， Kaola， Ymatou， etc. The latest reports indicate that JD Worldwide had a turnover of more than 10 times higher year-on-year， indicating that consumer demand is currently continuously being released， while consumers are no longer satisfied with local brands， contributing to a booming import market in China， and encouraging the development of cross-border online shopping. It can also be said that the new consumption of imports has become a new stimulus for domestic demand in China， as well as an opportunity for e-commerce importers.

The on-going pandemic has stagnated economic activities in many countries and regions around the world， making high quality and low-priced products made in China more popular. According to the General Administration of Customs， in the first three quarters of this year， imports and exports of cross-border e-businesses recorded a growth of 20.1%， partly due to the pandemic， as this has forced global foreign trade companies and consumers to move online， promoting the rapid growth of the cross-border e-commerce industry.

According to Qichacha， a total of 7，943 cross-border e-commercerelated enterprises were registered in the first three quarters of 2021， marking an average growth rate of 90.6% in the last two years. Booming cross-border e-commerce drives the development of the warehousing industry， and Chinese crossborder e-commerce platforms have established many overseas warehouses， encouraging and facilitating crossborder sellers to go abroad.

Due to the recurring nature of the pandemic around the world other than in China， demand for international container liners remained firm， pushing freight prices to rise continuously， to the point that not even a single container was available. According to Qichacha， there are currently 266，000 container-related enterprises in China， including 55，000 which were newly registered in the first three quarters of 2021， marking an the average growth of 52.8% over the last two years.

In recent years， the steadily growing logistics industry in China has driven the warehousing market to grow year by year. The warehousing industry is both capital- and laborintensive， with a relatively limited profitability for basic storage service models， such that traditional storage enterprises are now mainly exploring warehousing logistics value-added services. Booming cross-border e-commerce industry supports the warehousing industry， driving the development of bonded warehouses and other services with a higher profitability. At present， there are 2.339 million warehousing-related enterprises， including 543，000 which were newly registered in the first three quarters of 2021， with an average growth of 68.9% over the last two years. In contrast， these overseas warehouses growing quickly in number are also helping cross-border sellers go abroad.

Zhang Zhouping further explained that the great promotions on Double 11 actually present challenges in terms of cross-border logistics， since the timeliness and user experience of cross-border logistics are important to the shopping experience. Meanwhile， the shopping festival also poses a challenge for customs too， since more and more cross-border e-businesses are participating in the Double 11 shopping festival， which results in a surging volume of crossborder transactions. For example， the export value from Guangdong increased by more than 150% and the value of online shopping bonded imports in Beijing was 125 times higher. Short-term surging demand for customs clearance due to Double 11 is also a high-pressure test for local customs agencies， and for customs technology and systems， helping improve the efficiency of customs services for cross-border e-commerce.