A warehouse run by a Wenzhou-based company in Wednesbury, the United Kingdom. [Photo/wenzhou.gov.cn]
Statistics from the Wenzhou commerce bureau show that from January to November this year, the value of imports and exports generated by companies in the Wenzhou Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone reached 11.66 billion yuan ($1.83 billion), growing 891 percent over the entire year of 2020.
Exports were valued at 9.88 billion yuan and imports at 1.78 billion yuan, up 1,286 percent and 283 percent, respectively, compared with the entire year of 2020.
The zone has witnessed explosive development in cross-border e-commerce in Wenzhou, and these inspiring results were due to its continuous efforts to improve the cross-border e-commerce industry in various ways.
The first was opening more warehouses and issuing more preferential policies for cross-border e-commerce companies. The two newly-built warehouses in the zone, which were just put into use in August, have already been fully booked by local companies.
Companies that import goods via the zone's channels and import at least $400,000 in goods for the first time will gain a certain amount in financial support.
The second was the zone actively encouraging traditional foreign trade companies to step out of the OEM market, build up their own brands and explore overseas markets. This has become a way to help domestic foreign trade companies survive the COVID-19 pandemic as their profits have narrowed because overseas consumers prefer to shop online.
Instead of looking for overseas warehouses and facing capital and inventory pressure, the zone has allowed companies to temporarily stock their goods there, which has freed them from repeated tax and customs clearance fees caused by poor sales overseas.
