China's cross-border e-commerce sector reached a historic breakthrough in 2024. The sector's exports grew 16.9 percent year-on-year to reach 2.15 trillion RMB in 2024, while the total cross-border trade volume hit 2.71 trillion RMB, according to official data.

In recent years, cross-border e-commerce companies have mushroomed across China, and the industry's development expertise has continuously improved, making it a strong growth driver in the country's foreign trade.

The strong momentum is largely driven by innovative policies, complete industrial systems and flexible supply chains, and emerging technology.

The Chinese government has introduced a series of forward looking policies in response to the development trends of cross-border e-commerce. These measures aim to create a more favorable environment for the sector's growth and provide robust support for upgrading the  industry.

The year 2025 marks the 10th anniversary of China's Cross-Border E-Commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zones, a move that involves new regulatory approaches in areas such as Customs clearance, taxation, foreign exchange and data flow. Currently, the number of such pilot zones has been expanded to 178.

The policy has brought more opportunities for industry growth and achieved remarkable outcomes. A notable case is Hangzhou, a city in east China's Zhejiang province.  It has seen tremendous growth in e-commerce in the past 10 years, with its cumulative import and export volume exceeding 200 billion RMB, an average annual growth rate of over 30 percent, according to statistics from Hangzhou Customs.

A strong supply chain system and manufacturing base serve as a key pillar for the rapid growth of cross-border e-commerce, enhancing the competitiveness of Chinese companies. An established supply chain system ensures seamless end-to-end product flow from production to delivery, reducing logistics costs and transit times while improving consumer experience.

As the world's manufacturing powerhouse, China boasts 41 major industrial categories, making it the only country in the world that has all the industrial categories listed in the United Nations industrial classification system. This provides cross-border e-commerce with a vast selection of high-quality and competitively priced goods, allowing businesses to precisely match the diverse consumption needs of different countries and regions. Meanwhile, large-scale production further reduces costs, giving China the edge in global markets.

The application of emerging technologies has injected strong momentum into the supply chain and logistics. Big data helps companies accurately predict market demand by analyzing consumption trends and sales data. For example, historical sales data can optimize overseas warehouse inventory layouts. IoT connects all aspects of the supply chain. Sensors monitor storage conditions, inventory levels, and item locations in real time, facilitating smart replenishment and precise inventory management in the warehouse.  Technologies like GPS provide real-time tracking of cargo location and status, allowing rapid response to any anomalies.

AI enhances the sector's efficiency in customer service and communication, targeted marketing and advertising, content creation and product presentation, data analysis and decision-making, as well as lowering labor costs. For example, Alibaba International's "AI Business Assistant" can respond to overseas customers 24/7, significantly improving the secondary response rate by about 40 percent.

China's cross-border e-commerce is expected to maintain its strong performance in goods trade.