Through the eye of the storm! Internet giants show their magical powers to help foreign trade enterprises tide over the difficulties.

Recently, many platforms, such as JD.COM, Baidu, Pinduoduo, Alibaba, Tencent, Meituan and Tik Tok, have voiced their voices one after another to help foreign trade enterprises "export to domestic sales". At the same time, cross-border payment and logistics enterprises are also taking active actions to respond to the needs of the transformation of foreign trade enterprises.

The platform supports cross-border businesses to "export to domestic sales"

The United States has already "cut the knife" on the parcels from China and Hongkong that were not more than 800 dollars, and the duty-free treatment will be officially terminated from May 2.

"As we all know, the United States is one of the important target markets for China to develop cross-border e-commerce, which means that the cost of cross-border e-commerce will rise and the market competitive advantage will become less obvious. It is a big impact for cross-border e-commerce enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises." Bai Ming, a researcher at the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, said frankly in an interview with shanghai securities news.

The reporter interviewed a number of cross-border SMEs and learned that many businesses have adjusted their wait-and-see mood and started to take the initiative to respond.

"Nowadays, many foreign trade enterprises are willing to’ export to domestic sales’. Major platforms and retail enterprises help cross-border businesses to expand the domestic market according to their own advantages such as platforms and traffic, and also provide more choices for these enterprises." Bai Ming said frankly.

Up to now, many platform enterprises such as JD.COM, Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, Meituan, Tik Tok, etc. have expressed their views one after another, giving money, traffic and resources to support foreign trade enterprises to "export to domestic sales".

On April 11th, JD.COM announced the establishment of a special procurement fund of 200 billion yuan, and launched the export-to-domestic support plan.

On April 12, Baidu announced that it will give priority to supporting 1 million enterprises to export to domestic market by using AI technology and platform traffic, and explore the domestic market. Baidu’s love procurement platform will also issue 1 million corporate grants to export enterprises to help open domestic sales channels at a low threshold.

The reporter learned from Ali that Ali International Station has sent thousands of "Little Two" to almost all foreign trade industrial belts in the country, and at the same time launched special actions to fully help small and medium-sized foreign trade businesses that encounter difficulties. On April 15th, Alibaba’s source factory procurement platform 1688 said that foreign trade manufacturers with overstocked inventory would be provided with full custody and help sales services, and the platform would reduce or exempt commissions. Foreign trade manufacturers could also negotiate with the platform on the cooperation mode of inventory underwriting.

At the same time, 1688 provides early repayment service for foreign trade manufacturers who encounter financial difficulties, and provides special credit loans in conjunction with online merchant banks and other financial institutions, focusing on supporting the most affected clothing, textile and light industrial products and enterprises.

Pinduoduo recently launched the "100 billion support" plan, which also increased subsidies for small and medium-sized cross-border businesses. Zhao Jiazhen, executive director and co-CEO of Pinduoduo, said: "We are determined to shoulder the costs and risks of the transformation and development of platform businesses, and we also have sufficient strategic strength to cope with the uncertainty of the external market environment. We will give priority to ensuring the stable development and healthy profits of small and medium-sized manufacturing industries."

On April 16th, Tik Tok Group launched the special support plan for foreign trade excellent products, integrating business resources such as e-commerce and living services, and helping foreign trade merchants to reduce operating costs and expand the domestic market by setting up green channels, special traffic support, commission reduction and fee reduction, and interest-free loans to help turnover.

In addition, Meituan has launched a green channel for transferring foreign trade to domestic sales, taking advantage of its own resources in warehousing, channels and distribution, such as Elephant Supermarket, Meituan Optimization and Meituan Flash Purchase, and fully supporting the businesses of Meituan in terms of business settlement, business support and brand building.

As of the early morning of April 17th, Meituan Flash Shopping has set up a special working group to transfer foreign trade to domestic sales. According to the relevant person in charge, at present, the working group has coordinated the national lightning warehouses, convenience stores and brands to reach a supply chain cooperation alliance, and 335 enterprises have clicked to sign up for cooperation, of which 111 have entered the actual domestic sales docking process.

On April 17th, Tencent launched the "Run-up Plan for the New Journey of Foreign Trade", paving the way for foreign trade enterprises to broaden the domestic and international markets through ten measures, such as opening a green channel, encouraging new businesses, supporting traffic, and offering preferential rates. It is expected that the business ecology such as small programs, WeChat stores and digital offline stores will increase the sales scale of foreign trade enterprises by 100 billion yuan.

Take the initiative to change the industrial chain, enterprises cooperate to meet the challenge

Bai Ming said that it is still difficult to predict the adjustment direction of subsequent tariffs. But what is certain is that the risks and challenges that cross-border e-commerce business is encountering will further affect foreign trade service enterprises and spread to the upstream and downstream of industrial chains such as logistics and cross-border payment.

The shipping market dynamics released by where to go show that the US tariff policy has led to changes in the US-Canada route. Faced with this situation, major shipping companies are rapidly working out route adjustment plans, and part of the ship capacity of the US-Canada route may spill over to the European route (Euro-Mediterranean route) for undertaking.

In an interview with reporters, the head of the international freight department of a courier company admitted that the international freight market has been subject to certain fluctuations recently due to tariff adjustment. The volume of international freight orders, especially those involving cross-border e-commerce exports to the United States, has declined in a short period of time, and many shippers are on the sidelines, suspending shipments or adjusting shipment plans. However, the company is actively communicating with customers, seeking coping strategies, paying attention to market dynamics, adjusting the operation plan in time, and trying its best to reduce the impact of tariff policies on business.

The strategic adjustment of international logistics and the change of freight rate also provide more possibilities for foreign trade enterprises to explore diversified markets. The person in charge of a home textile cross-border e-commerce company from Shenzhen told the reporter that the company’s current delivery to the United States is normal, but the profit of the products has been difficult to guarantee. The company is trying to move its supply chain overseas to meet the tariff challenge, and at the same time, increase the layout of the European market.

Recently, the download rankings of DHgate (Dunhuang Net), Taobao (Taobao) and Alibaba.com (Ali International Station) in the US have risen sharply, which also shows that Americans’ desire to stock up on "Made in China" has not been extinguished by the tariff increase. Some leading foreign trade enterprises also told reporters that the possibility of export price increase to the United States is not ruled out. "If the price of peers increases, we will follow suit."

Yong Chengxiang, president of Dongguan Industry and Trade Development Promotion Association and chairman of Dongguan Foaiwa Arts and Crafts Co., Ltd., said that if we really want to give up the American market, we should go to Europe and Central Asia. According to him, the association has conducted preliminary investigations on other overseas markets, including Australia, and more than 30 foreign trade enterprises have responded.

Prevent involution and accommodate new enterprises with incremental space.

In addition to proposing a 100 billion support plan, the reporter learned that a number of e-commerce platforms, including JD.COM and Ali, have set up special groups for "exporting to domestic sales", and the number of foreign trade enterprises docking is constantly increasing.

The relevant person in charge of JD.COM told the reporter that nearly 3,000 enterprises and businesses have approached JD.COM for cooperation and help since the announcement of the support plan three days ago (as of April 14th). "This number is rising rapidly every day. To this end, JD.COM has also started the selection of hundreds of categories including clothing, shoes and hats, consumer electronics, household appliances, household daily use, luggage and leather goods, and toy musical instruments. " The person in charge revealed.

"In the contact with foreign trade enterprises, we have noticed that many foreign trade enterprises have concentrated on their unfamiliarity with domestic market rules and lack of online operation experience." Several platform leaders gave feedback to reporters.

In response to this pain point, Tmall opened the exclusive channel of the "Blue Star Plan", and "Industry Xiaoer" provided one-to-one guidance for foreign trade enterprises. JD.COM also set up a "7×24-hour" clue collection and feedback team according to the different needs of merchants, and organized a purchasing and marketing team to start the office assistance of the industrial belt.

Bai Ming suggested that the competitive pressure of cross-border e-commerce industry has increased in recent years, and the industry has been constantly shuffled. Foreign trade enterprises are also facing more challenges when they move to China, which requires the concerted efforts of platforms, businesses and policies. At this time, enterprises should strengthen their confidence, not only make good use of the support of e-commerce platform, but also give full play to their advantages and step up research and development. In terms of overseas business, we will further make good use of the overseas warehouse model, strive to increase exploration in efficient logistics and efficient customs clearance, and carry out more diversified overseas layout. While exploring the domestic market and promoting "export to domestic sales", we should also pay special attention to preventing involution competition.

The reporter noted that preventing involution competition has also become a major focus for platform enterprises to support foreign trade manufacturers to "export to domestic sales".

"To expand the domestic market demand, it is necessary to accommodate new foreign trade enterprises with incremental space instead of stock space." Bai Ming said, "At present, the competition in the domestic market is already fierce. Cross-border e-commerce enterprises’ moving to the domestic market is not a trade-off competition, but should give full play to their own advantages, step up research and development, open up the blue ocean market, and bring more incremental consumption."

At the same time, he suggested that in terms of policy measures, we can guide the support policies such as "trade-in" to give more support to enterprises that "export to domestic sales" and form an increase in consumption, rather than squeezing the domestic market, so as to form a more benign market structure.