Small and micro enterprises with less than one hundred employees serve multiple overseas markets-
micro multinational enterprises have become "new players" in exports
Exports to 37 countries and regions, with an annual export value of 50 million yuan-many people would not expect that this performance was made by New Newton International Trade (Tianjin) Co., Ltd., which has only 21 employees.
Thanks to the continuous lowering of global trade barriers by digital payment and other technologies, since last year, a large number of entrepreneurs and small and micro enterprises have joined the cross-border e-commerce industry and become "micro multinational enterprises" like New Newton.
How did this type of enterprise arise?
What is the new trend of China's exports revealed behind the scenes?
Cross-border e-commerce is not only a game for large and medium enterprises
What is a micro multinational enterprise?
Recently, the "2020 Cross-border Export E-commerce Industry White Paper" released by relevant agencies outlines the portraits of micro-multinational enterprises: typical small and micro enterprises, many of which are start-ups with less than 100 employees; they can quickly complete them by making good use of digital platforms. Product selection, procurement, sales, logistics, customs declaration, payment collection, tax rebate and other complex businesses that large companies could only handle in the past; operating an average of 3.56 overseas sites, most companies serving 3 or more overseas markets; even in the epidemic and the world Under the challenges of a complex and changeable situation, sales growth of 130% was still achieved.
New Newton is one of the typical enterprises, established in 2015, mainly engaged in the export of forklifts.
In 2020, under the influence of the epidemic, New Newton achieved an export value of 50 million yuan through Alibaba International Station, an increase of more than 100% over 2019.
"Last year, we expanded more than 20 overseas markets in one go! Now our forklifts are sold to 37 countries and regions overseas, among which Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, Spain, and Saudi Arabia have the highest sales." New Newton's general manager Qiu Yibo said This reporter said.
Since last year, micro multinational companies have sprung up like mushrooms.
Just take the Tmall Taobao overseas distribution platform as an example. Within one month of May 2020, more than 150,000 small and medium-sized businesses have joined the platform, which is 8 times faster than in the past year.
Zhejiang Jinhua Pujiang County Zhubi Crystal Crafts Co., Ltd. is mainly engaged in DIY crystal beading, and has a stall in Yiwu that has been open for 10 years.
Last year, the overseas "home economy" broke out, and the purchase demand for crystal beads on Alibaba International Station soared.
Company person in charge Lu Rihong said: “Last year, we gained more than double the number of new customers from the previous year through online sales, and sales increased by 80% year-on-year. Through Alibaba’s international station Sino-US shipping logistics service for delivery and fulfillment, the freight rate has been reduced by 50% compared to the previous year. , The timeliness is relatively guaranteed, and you can arrive in the U.S. in almost 20 working days. No, there was a customer who only purchased US$1,000 each time, but now he purchases US$10,000 each time!"
With the addition of micro-multinationals, cross-border e-commerce no longer only involves large companies.
The "White Paper" pointed out that the participants in the cross-border e-commerce market have changed from large enterprises to the present. With the help of digital platforms, entrepreneurs and small enterprises have joined them, and have been able to operate multinational markets, become micro multinational enterprises, and become global buyers. Provide diversified "Made in China" and light customization services.
“In the past, it was unimaginable for a single small and micro enterprise to do multi-country export business.” Zhang Jianping, deputy director of the Academic Committee of the Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, said in an interview with this reporter that cross-border e-commerce platforms can open up procurement, Sales, logistics and other links provide a very good development platform and development channels for small, medium and micro enterprises and entrepreneurs to expand overseas markets, creating unprecedented new development opportunities.
These small, medium and micro enterprises and entrepreneurs seized the opportunity to become new players in the field of cross-border e-commerce.
Leveraging on the hot east wind of cross-border export trade
How can the new player, the micro multinational company, go abroad smoothly and become popular?
Behind this is the ever-increasing scale of cross-border e-commerce transactions, especially the hot cross-border export trade.
According to data from the General Administration of Customs, China's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports will be 1.69 trillion yuan in 2020, an increase of 31.1%.
Among them, exports are the leading factor. In 2020, China's cross-border e-commerce exports are 1.12 trillion yuan, an increase of 40.1%, accounting for nearly 70%.
In the first quarter of this year, China's cross-border e-commerce exports grew faster than imports, reaching 69.3%.
The rapid growth of new players is inseparable from the high-quality soil provided by policy support.
Since the establishment of the first China (Hangzhou) cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone in 2015, the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone has been expanding continuously over the years. At present, 105 comprehensive pilot zones have been formed nationwide, covering 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.
In March of this year, the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission and other six departments jointly issued the "Notice on Expanding Cross-border E-commerce Retail Import Pilots and Strictly Implementing Supervisory Requirements", expanding the scope of cross-border e-commerce retail import pilots to all pilot free trade zones and cross-border e-commerce retail imports. The city (and region) where the border e-commerce comprehensive trial zone, the comprehensive bonded zone, the import trade promotion innovation demonstration zone, and the bonded logistics center (Type B) are located.
The continuous optimization of overseas links such as logistics and payment has supported the continuous growth of cross-border e-commerce and has also facilitated the rapid growth of new players.
Cross-border logistics services continue to improve.
China's cross-border e-commerce export logistics demand is relatively high in the world. According to data from the State Post Bureau, from August 2019 to July 2020, parcels sent by China accounted for 60% of the global cross-border e-commerce packages.
The skyrocketing demand has put forward higher requirements on the level of logistics services, and overseas warehouses that adopt the "orders not placed, goods first" model have emerged.
In addition to overseas warehousing functions, overseas warehouses also have comprehensive functions such as transportation and sales, providing professional warehousing services for cross-border sellers, reducing logistics costs and speeding up logistics timeliness.
Cross-border payment services are becoming more convenient.
The "White Paper" pointed out that cross-border payment platforms not only rely on technical means to reduce the cost and threshold of financial services, and increase the frequency of user use, but also have the advantages of fast, convenient, and high security, and have become an indispensable payment channel.
New Newton uses the "One Access" service that can be credited to the account on the same day.
Qiu Yibo said: “The receipt and withdrawal of Onedatong will basically arrive on the same day. Compared with the previous payment cycle, the time will be shortened by at least 2-3 days. Because in the past, the payment needs to go to the bank to settle the exchange, and a lot of documents must be provided and manual review of the documents. You can withdraw cash only afterwards. And through the one-stop export, the whole process of document comparison, no more preparation, review and submission of documents is required, which simplifies the process and saves the time cost of the salesperson. This is very important for our micro multinational enterprises. "
It is understood that the fastest-growing cross-border payment platform "Wanlihui" in 2020 will launch related services such as flash payment and withdrawal to Alipay for the pain points of difficult and slow withdrawals of sellers.
Payment institutions such as Lianlian Payment and PingPong have also launched instant payment services to solve the problem of difficult and slow withdrawals for sellers, and solve the urgent need of micro-multinational companies' capital turnover.
Enter more overseas platforms and integrate into the global market
The overseas "territory" of Chinese sellers is still expanding.
The "White Paper" pointed out that nearly 60% of sellers have operated more than two Amazon overseas sites at the same time, and 82% of sellers plan to expand new sites on the existing basis.
From the perspective of market distribution, the North American and European markets are the most mature and are the choice of more than 50% of cross-border e-commerce sellers.
It is worth noting that the Southeast Asian market has been very hot in recent years and has become the third largest emerging market after Europe and the United States.
From the standpoint of platforms, cross-border e-commerce platforms such as Lazada and Shopee have emerged to carry out large-scale recruitment of Chinese merchants.
In addition, many e-commerce platforms such as Mercado Libre and Noon have emerged in Latin America and the Middle East, presenting a high-quality blue ocean prospect for cross-border e-commerce.
"In 2020, the penetration rate of overseas e-commerce will increase significantly. Buyers who were accustomed to offline purchases have switched to online, bringing a huge amount of new growth. This is a godsend for us!" Qiu Yibo said.
Chinese sellers continue to enter more overseas cross-border e-commerce platforms and are deeply integrated into the global market.
"Micro multinational enterprises have quick market response, rapid supply and demand docking, and high operational efficiency. They have become a new model that meets the needs of the'home economy' and directly connects supply and demand under the epidemic." Zhang Jianping said.
Relevant agencies predict that 2021 will enter the next period of digital foreign trade.
In Zhang Jianping's view, in the future, there will be more and more new players such as micro-multinational companies, and they are expected to become the main force in China's exports.
“Micro-multinational corporations can meet the needs of diversified markets, and they can also tap into niche needs that are not so high in demand, and integrate them into new economic growth points. Even if the impact of the global epidemic subsides in the future, micro-multinational corporations can meet the needs of market expansion. New trends and new demands will still maintain a steady growth trend.” He said that as RCEP enters the implementation stage, micro-multinational enterprises are expected to become a new growth point in this new large market.
As of April this year, New Newton has completed an export value of 20 million yuan.
"This year is expected to achieve 70 to 80 million yuan! This is still a conservative estimate. The real peak season for foreign trade in the forklift industry is from July to December, and there may be even greater increments at that time." Qiu Yibo said further this year. I am confident in expanding overseas.
What is a "micro multinational enterprise"?
●Taking only the Tmall Taobao overseas distribution platform as an example, in May 2020, more than 150,000 small and medium businesses will join the platform, which is 8 times faster than in the past year.
● Typical small and micro enterprises, many of which are start-ups with less than 100 employees;
● Make good use of the digital platform to quickly complete complex businesses that could only be done by large enterprises in the past, such as product selection, procurement, sales, logistics, customs declaration, collection, and foreign exchange settlement and tax rebate;
● Operating an average of 3.56 overseas sites, most companies serve 3 or more overseas markets;
● Even under the challenges of the epidemic and the complex and changeable world situation, it still achieved 130% sales growth.
According to the "2020 Cross-border Export E-commerce Industry White Paper"