Since 2013, with the slowdown in the growth of the national retail industry, e-commerce, including online retail, has maintained a rapid growth trend, and the application area of ​​e-commerce has continued to expand and deepen. The rapid growth of China's e-commerce comes from the fact that Chinese business users and consumers have gradually increased their acceptance of the Internet and online shopping. Traditional enterprises have entered the e-commerce industry on a large scale, and online sales activities have continued to increase. With the increasingly perfect national regulatory system, increasing policy support, and the maturity of e-commerce companies and consumers, China's e-commerce will usher in a better development environment. It is expected that China's e-commerce will continue to maintain a high growth rate, and the average annual compound growth rate from 2014 to 2020 will remain above 20%. With the rapid development of e-commerce, more and more traditional industries are involved in e-commerce, for example, the application of e-commerce in agriculture to explore the traceability of agricultural product information.

In the context of consumption upgrades and traffic growth hitting the bottleneck, the development of the e-commerce industry in China has ushered in huge changes in 2019. According to the development data of the national online retail market in the first half of 2019, the national online retail sales in China in the first half of this year reached 4.82 trillion yuan, an increase of 17.8% year-on-year, and the growth rate further accelerated. Among them, B2C retail sales accounted for 75.8% of the national online retail sales, an increase of 4.1 percentage points from the same period last year. Cosmetics, smart homes, health products, and other commodities became high-selling products, with sales growth rates exceeding 30% year-on-year. As the most intuitive external manifestation of the e-commerce industry, the situation of online sales is closely related to the development of e-commerce. Let's take a look at the trends of the e-commerce industry in 2019 by combining the characteristics of the online sales market in China in the first half of the year.

Data show that in the first half of the year, China's rural online retail sales reached 777.13 billion yuan, an increase of 21.0% year-on-year, and the growth rate was 3.2 percentage points higher than that of the country. The national online retail sales of agricultural products were 187.36 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 25.3%. From the data, it can be seen that, on the one hand, based on the cultivation of markets in cities and rural areas below the third tier by big e-commerce companies such as Taobao, Pinduoduo, and Jingdong, the demand for online shopping in the rural market has been expanded, which has led to a substantial increase in sales. Judging from the proportion, rural network sales account for 16% of national network sales, and there is still much room for improvement in the future. On the other hand, the development of e-commerce industry and the development of logistics and transportation began to benefit the sales of agricultural products.

In the past, many agricultural products were trapped in sales channels, inconvenient transportation, and other factors. Now, live e-commerce companies such as Taobao Village Broadcasting are opening up new online sales channels for agricultural products, which not only gives relevant agricultural products a window to the country, but also helps agricultural products solve the problem of slow sales. In addition, postal and SF express delivery companies have also contributed to the logistics construction of the rural market in recent years. These companies have tailored new logistics supply chains for agricultural products such as fresh fruit, laying the foundation for agricultural products sales in the country.

In addition to rural markets, the differences between regions can also be found in markets in cities and rural areas below the third tier. Data show that retail sales of fresh produce, cosmetics, and pet supplies in large cities have grown rapidly, while retail sales of clothing, automotive supplies, and household appliances in small and medium-sized cities and rural areas have grown rapidly. From the perspective of categories, the demand in large cities is biased toward high-end products, while the demand for other daily-use and home appliances is not large, but small and medium-sized cities still have strong demand for clothing, home appliances, and other products. Long-term needs. From this perspective, those who sink the market will have better development potential.

Entering 2019, the competition among major e-commerce companies for markets in cities and rural areas below the third tier has also become heated. Alibaba Group is strengthening its share of markets in cities and rural areas below the third tier through Taobao Village Broadcasting, Taobao Village, and Cost-effective, etc .; JD.com has not only comprehensively upgraded its investment promotion policy, but also will be blessed with WeChat 10-level traffic; Suning Tesco recently launched "Quick Hand" "Small shops" and the acquisition of more than 60 OK convenience stores have also begun to accelerate markets in cities and rural areas below the third tier. The potential of markets in cities and rural areas below the third tier has been gradually released. The in-depth layout of e-commerce platforms and logistics and express delivery companies will not only bring new traffic to the e-commerce industry, but also bring dividends to rural and small and medium cities.

Data show that the retail imports of major cross-border e-commerce platforms increased by more than 20% year-on-year in the first half of this year. From the point of origin, imports from Japan, the United States, and South Korea rank the top three, accounting for 19.1%, 13.9%, and 10.7%, respectively. In terms of categories, cosmetics, grains, oils and foods and daily necessities are in the top three, accounting for 34.8%, 24.7% and 9.6%, respectively. With the improvement of people's living standards, domestic consumers' demand for overseas products is also getting stronger and stronger. According to iiMedia Research, the number of Haitao users in China exceeded 100 million in 2018, and this number is expected to increase by 50% to 150 million in 2019. The expanding market demand supports the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce. It is estimated that the scale of China's cross-border e-commerce transactions will reach 12.7 trillion yuan in 2020.

With the continuous expansion of market demand, relevant policies have also begun to follow the trend, which is good for the cross-border e-commerce sector. The "E-commerce Law" implemented this year mentioned that it will promote the development of cross-border e-commerce and support enterprises to engage in cross-border e-commerce. Recently, the director of the Ministry of Commerce's e-commerce and informatization Department, Fang Li, said that it would improve cross-border e-commerce policies to vigorously help enterprises "go global". In addition, the General Administration of Customs and the Ministry of Commerce have recently expressed their emphasis on the development of cross-border e-commerce. In the future, with the improvement of relevant policies, China will not only import cross-border e-commerce, but also export cross-border e-commerce.

At present, from a domestic perspective, cross-border e-commerce business is still in the era of the competition among major players, head platforms such as NetEase Koala and Tmall International are growing vigorously, and international e-commerce giant Amazon ’s “outbound purchases” in China are also very strong. Netease Koala has recently been involved in live e-commerce. Tmall International is launching an English station to increase cross-border e-commerce. Amazon's "Overseas Purchase" was a great success in the July Member Day Shopping Festival. From the perspective of market share, the cross-border e-commerce platforms of various heads have not widened significantly from other competitors. In general, cross-border e-commerce is still an area full of variables and development potential.

In the context of the peak of e-commerce traffic, online and offline integration has begun to accelerate, and the integration of online and physical development is moving closer to consumers and improving operational efficiency. After the initial round of upsurge, various online and offline integration development models have begun to face a profit crisis and have started to change. The e-commerce platform, which was originally focused on online sales, began to focus on integration with offline physical stores, especially the development of the fresh food sector. Take Hema Xiansheng and Super Species as examples. Both of the representatives of Fresh Fresh Retail have ushered in the closure of their first stores, and they have been constrained by profit difficulties. At present, these two new retail representatives are constantly exploring new development models in an attempt to find breakthroughs. Platforms such as JD.com and Tmall also have different pilots for various types of stores, and in addition to the fresh produce field, Vipshop, represented by special sales, has also begun to deploy an "online + offline" integration model in order to seek new development. Looking back on the first half of the year, major e-commerce platforms and major areas have begun to deploy offline stores in order to break through the traffic dilemma.

Enterprises that had previously adhered to offline also began to increase their online presence. Taking home appliance retail giant Suning Tesco as an example, Suning Tesco accelerated its “smart retail” layout in 2019, and the expansion of online resources is particularly impressive. In the recent Suning 808 Pin-up Day event, the total number of orders in 24 hours exceeded 26 million, and it took 4 hours to surpass all-day orders in the same period last year. Starbucks, which had always adhered to offline stores, was not only quickly launched a take-away service after being hit by Ruixin Coffee, but also specially created a “Brown Express” store that “orders online and picks up from the store”, such a rapid transformation. Bringing performance improvement to Starbucks. As a game breaker, Ruixing Coffee is still struggling between profit and burning money. In addition, Wal-Mart, Yonghui, Carrefour and other giants that were mainly based on offline retail sales have also started a new retail transformation. The integration of online and offline is accelerating, and whether it is fresh or special sales, or convenience stores, coffee, the trend of accelerating the reshuffle is more and more obvious. New retail with online and offline integration at its core is quietly ushering in a key change, and may at any time usher in a second round of outbreak. The development of the e-commerce industry in 2019 coincides with the era of consumption upgrades, which has formed a huge positive for the entire industry, especially the cross-border e-commerce boom.