BEIJING, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- Aliexpress, the global sales platform of Alibaba Group, has relocated its Russian branch to the central business district (CBD) of Moscow recently.
Aliexpress gained a strong foothold in Russia and the main objective of the company is to attract more Russian enterprises to sell goods through its platform so as to save the cost of international transportation, improve the customer experience and help Russian enterprises gather experience in e-commerce, said Yu Ping, the company’s marketing director in Russia.
Cross-border e-commerce is a new area of bilateral cooperation between China and Russia, as products sold by Chinese e-commerce platforms enjoy huge popularity among Russian customers and meanwhile, the cross-border e-commerce cooperation also promotes the entry of Russian agricultural products into China, said, Li Hui, Chinese ambassador to Russia.
Chinese cross-border e-commerce platforms are speeding up their business layout not only in Russia, but also in countries along the Belt and Road.
In April, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group acquired a controlling stake in leading Southeast Asian online shopping platform Lazada for 1.0 billion U.S. dollars as it looks to expand beyond China’s increasingly saturated market.
Besides, Alibaba signed several agreements in December with Thailand's Ministry of Commerce to help the country develop e-commerce.
In November, Alibaba's financial branch Ant Financial, ramped up its global expansion with an investment in Thailand's Ascend Money. In July, China Post Group, China's state-owned postal service provider, and Lazada Group signed a strategic agreement to enhance cross-border logistics solutions for Chinese sellers on the Lazada platform.
During the past few years, China has witnessed a booming cross-border e-commerce sector.
According to data released by China E-business Research Center, China’s total transaction volume of cross-border e-commerce sector reached 5.4 trillion yuan (about 770 billion U.S. dollars) in 2015, up 28.6 percent year on year.
The Ministry of Commerce predicted the volume of cross-border e-commerce in 2016 will reach 6.5 trillion yuan (about 935 billion U.S. dollars) and will soon account for 20 percent of China's foreign trade.
Chinese cross-border e-commerce companies hold great potential for business development in countries along the Belt and Road, said Zhao Ping, director of international trade department with China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT).
Most of countries along the Belt and Road, especially developing countries, have relatively poor commercial infrastructure compared with China, and thus these countries may follow a similar development path of China’s e-commerce industry, Zhao said.
China has a great number of cross-border enterprises with rich experience in e-commerce business and they could take advantage of their experience to develop business in countries along the Belt and Road, said Zhao, adding that there is a bright prospect for cross-border e-commerce companies to develop business in the South and Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and India.
Except for some cross-border e-commerce giants such as Tmall Global and JD Worldwide, small- and medium-sized cross-border e-commerce platforms also want to take a ride on China’s Belt and Road Initiatives so as to make fortune in the overseas market, Zhao noted.
Zhao also pointed out that small- and medium-sized cross-border e-commerce firms should cooperate with each other in a bid to realize the common development and to secure the firm foothold in the international market. Editem (Edited by Yang Yifan, yangyifan@xinhua.org)
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