On the morning of November 8, “New Era • New Opportunities • New E-Commerce - Forum on Import Trade Boosting Consumer Upgrade”, a parallel forum of the China International Import Expo, was held at C0-05 meeting hall of China International Import Expo. The forum was sponsored by Yunji, a membership e-commerce firm, under the guidance of Zhejiang Provincial Department of Commerce. Present at this forum were VIP guests including: Chen Tiexiong, vice chairman of Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference; Sasirit Tangulrat, Consul General of Royal Thai Consulate-General in Shanghai; Lu Chengnan, Executive Vice President of Zhejiang Province E-commerce Promotion Association; representatives of global renowned brands like Patrick Bornand, COO and CFO of Nestle’s Cross-Border E-commerce Division, and Lin Qijiang, President of Nittaya in China; Yunji’s CEO Xiao shanglve  and Senior Vice President Zhang Tiecheng.

 “New Era • New Opportunities • New E-Commerce - Forum on Import Trade Boosting Consumer Upgrade” mainly focused on cross-border e-commerce in order to boost international import and export trade with new ideas, promote domestic consumption upgrade, and further promote domestic and overseas economic exchange. At the forum, Yunji signed cross-border purchase agreements worth RMB5bn with a number of brands including Nestle and Nittaya.

△ Chen Tiexiong, vice chairman of Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference

According to a speech delivered by Chen Tiexiong, Vice Chairman of Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Zhejiang attaches great importance to the cultivation of e-commerce platforms and has steadily ranked top among Chinese provinces in terms of cross-border e-commerce development in recent years. Zhejiang is now home to a large number of influential and famous enterprises. One of such enterprises is Yunji - a leading social e-commerce enterprise in China and also a key e-commerce enterprise under Zhejiang’s development plan. He also said that Zhejiang province’s cross-border e-commerce industry chain has been continually improving, sales scale has been expanding quickly, the diversified operation trend has been increasingly remarkable, and regional clusters have been gradually formed. Cities in Zhejiang provinces like Hangzhou, Ningbo and Yiwu have been successively designated as national pilot cities on cross-border e-commerce. According to Chen Tiexiong’s disclosure, Zhejiang province’s cross-border e-commerce imports and exports grew 66.2% in 1-3Q2018.

According to Lu Chennan, Executive Vice President of Zhejiang Province E-commerce Promotion Association, Zhejiang, a hub for import trade in the Yangtze River Delta, is one of the earliest provinces in China that have put forward a plan to develop the e-commerce industry vigorously, and data show that nearly half of entrepreneurial and innovative projects in Zhejiang province are concentrated in e-commerce related fields.  In 2017, the total value of e-commerce retail import and export value in Zhejiang province as a whole was RMB60.39bn, up 49.6%. He was quoted as saying, “China now leads the world in terms of cross-border e-commerce development, and Zhejiang now leads China in this respect. Now, Zhejiang’s cross-border e-commerce development has entered into a stage of improving quality and efficiency.”

According to Patrick Bornand, COO and CFO of Nestle’s Cross-Border E-commerce Division, Chinese mothers are always looking for the best products for their babies, and this is just Nestle’s long-term pursuit. For this end, Nestle has carried out its cross-border business by bring in the most advanced products from all over the world to meet the needs of Chinese mothers, and Yuji is a leading social e-commerce platform that has worked with Nestle in this field. He said, “personally, I have taken part in many events organized by Yuji, and the enthusiasm and energy of Yuji’s opinion leaders and members has left a deep impression on me. I believe that the products provided by Nestle for Chinese mothers will be well showcased thanks to this innovative way of consumer communication.”

△ Patrick Bornand, COO and CFO of Nestle’s Cross-Border E-commerce Division

According to reports, Yuji started its cross-border business in January 2016 and now has 10 own bonded warehouses and 1 Hong Kong direct mail warehouse across the country. Yuji’s annual net sales of cross-border business were RMB210mn and RMB1.17bn in 2016 and 2017, respectively, representing a 457% YoY growth. Among cross-border e-commerce enterprises with a scale above RMB100mn, Yuji ranked first by growth rate. The products of many overseas brands found their way into numerous Chinese consumers via Yuji. For instance, Yuji has now become a major channel for online sale of latex pillows from Thai brands and the single-day sales volume may be up to 20,000.

△ Xiao Shanglve, Founder and CEO of Yunji

 “With so many giants in Chinese e-commerce community, Yunji has developed a membership e-commerce model oriented towards membership value and is now pioneering the e-commerce 4.0 era featuring social recommendation + high-standard supply chain”, said Yunji’s CEO Xiao Shanglve during his speech at the forum. In the past three years, guided by its mission of “make shopping easier and enjoy better life with shopping”, Yunji has enabled 40 million registered users and 5 million members to buy good products with high cost performance from worldwide by “online shopping”, thus continually boosting their living quality.

At the end of the forum, Yunji signed cross-border purchase agreements worth RMB5bn in total with global brands including Nestle, Blackmores, Mediheal, LG, Nittaya and GREECHAIN. According to Xiao Shanglve, Yunji will make full use of its own advantages and resources to participate in the construction of global trading platforms under the new pattern, and join hands with many more international brands to introduce more commodities with high cost performance and help boost consumption upgrade through global trade cooperation.