CHONGQING, May 27 (Xinhua) -- Over the past years, cross-border e-commerce goods have become much more diversified, larger and heavier, according to the observations of Kelvin Ho, senior director in charge of eBay's business development in China.
Ho's words were supported by several special exhibition areas in the just-concluded cross-border e-commerce trade fair, part of the sixth Western China International Fair for Investment and Trade.
This year's Western China International Fair for Investment and Trade was held from May 23 to 26 in Chongqing Municipality, southwest China. The exhibited products included auto and motorcycle parts, general machinery, and new energy facilities.
At the booth of Chongqing AMM Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd, three large rotary tillers were on display. These were also popular products with foreign clients from major agricultural producers such as India and Türkiye.
"Our company was set up in 2009, but we didn't engage in cross-border e-commerce until 2022, when the managers looked to expand the production lines and find a broader market," said Yin Shengman, a sales staffer of AMM.
"Experience from other counterpart enterprises showed us that cross-border e-commerce platforms can help find more clients and orders globally," said Yin, adding that AMM has cooperated with Alibaba, which provides whole-process cross-border e-commerce services.
Now more than 20 percent of the company's sales value is from cross-border e-commerce.
Since eBay is as a cross-border e-commerce service provider, similar to Alibaba, Ho also found himself surrounded by visitors, most of whom were from local auto and motorcycle parts enterprises.
eBay is one of the largest online markets selling autos, motorcycles and related parts across the globe. At the beginning, some consumables which are light, easily delivered, and repurchased frequently, such as bulbs and rearview mirrors, were the main products.
As more sellers flow in, products that are much heavier, larger, and meet American and European market access standards, have entered the e-commerce market. Some 120 vehicle accessories, 30 wheels and parts and 30 braking products are sold every minute on eBay.
Large products have benefited from the building of overseas warehouses, said Ho.
Earlier cross-border e-commerce product delivery mainly adopted the just-in-time method, which is time-consuming and not appropriate for large items. The building of overseas warehouses facilitates the delivery of large and heavy products and reduces the delivery time to three to five days from over two weeks, according to Ho.
"We have built three overseas warehouses in the Netherlands, Germany, and the UK, covering an area of 3.5 hectares since 2020. Delivery from overseas warehouses features lower cost and better clients experience," said Mayel Ye, sales director of Shenzhen Baosen Suntop Logistics Co., Ltd.
This year, the 135th China Import and Export Fair, also known as the Canton Fair, featured an overseas warehouse exhibitions zone for the first time.
"The new products show the world China's commitment to opening wider and sharing development opportunities," said Chu Shijia, deputy director and secretary general of the fair and also head of the China Foreign Trade Center.
Chongqing is a pacesetter in the auto and motorcycle industries and many eBay sellers source supplies from the city. However, local enterprises know little about cross-border e-commerce themselves, said Ho.
"As China's vehicle exports rocket, 2,200 automobile parts enterprises from southwest China in our association seek to go global via cross-border e-commerce," said Lydia Wang, foreign trade manager of Chongqing Naigu Automobile Products E-commerce Co., Ltd. The company is a member of Chongqing automobile parts industry and trade association.
Wang added that Naigu was among the first batch of enterprises to use cross-border e-commerce and now 35 percent of the company's export value comes from cross-border e-commerce.
"We feel the passion of enterprises in Chongqing ready to embark on cross-border e-commerce and fortunately, many mature service providers like eBay can help them better access the cross-border e-commerce platform," said Ho. ■
