Which is better, cross-border e-commerce or traditional foreign trade?

In recent years, more and more people have started to engage in cross-border e-commerce industry. Cross-border e-commerce is a combination of e-commerce and foreign trade. Compared with traditional foreign trade, cross-border e-commerce directly faces consumers, which solves the problem of cost increase caused by inventory, logistics and customs clearance of traditional foreign trade enterprises and greatly reduces the cost of enterprises going abroad. Let's take a look at the difference between cross-border e-commerce and foreign trade and which is better. First, the difference between cross-border e-commerce and foreign trade

Foreign trade and cross-border e-commerce can be said to be brothers, with similarities and differences. For foreign trade, it covers a wide range, and the goods involved in the transaction are not limited to physical objects. Foreign trade tends to be wholesale, like B2B transactions, and it is more complicated in tax filing.

Compared with foreign trade, cross-border e-commerce has not developed for a long time, and it can be called a foreign trade brother. Moreover, the target of cross-border e-commerce is essentially different from foreign trade. Cross-border is mainly aimed at C-end, that is, consumers. For example, Amazon, AliExpress, Wish, Star Day, etc. We have heard every day that these are B2C platforms in cross-border e-commerce.

According to the differences between cross-border and foreign trade, we can sum up the following points:

1, different subjects

In the foreign trade market, enterprises promote their own goods and services through information channels to attract foreign merchants, thus expanding overseas markets. Therefore, from the perspective of communication, foreign trade belongs to information flow.

From the perspective of cross-border platforms, merchants directly publish commodity information through platforms or self-built stations to complete commodity transactions. From this perspective, cross-border e-commerce takes the flow of goods.

2. Different links

In the foreign trade market, because they are all commodities, time cost enterprises will not obviously consider optimization in import and export links and other places.

In cross-border e-commerce, both transportation time and cost will affect the final transaction and profit of goods, so merchants should compliment these links, try to reduce costs and improve efficiency as much as possible.

3. Different trading methods.

In foreign trade, the double delivery transaction mode is offline, or the transaction is not connected to the third-party payment platform.

In cross-border e-commerce, both parties and transaction methods are generated by platforms, and payment also requires the intervention of third-party payment platforms.

4. Different taxes

Because foreign trade often involves large-value transactions, it is more complicated to declare taxes during customs examination, which involves not only value-added tax but also consumption tax.

Cross-border electronic commerce, as a business-to-person transaction, is simpler in taxation. Sometimes you may only be involved in a postal tax.

5. Different modes

The basic mode of foreign trade is B2B direction, which is the product of the primary stage of global trade development.

The mainstream trade model of cross-border e-commerce is B2C, which is the inevitable result of global trade development. Cross-border e-commerce has broken the operation mode of traditional foreign trade e-commerce, but now the boundary between cross-border e-commerce and foreign trade is becoming increasingly blurred.

Through the above points, we can finally sum up: foreign trade: the number of commodities traded is generally a large transaction. Cross-border e-commerce: Commodity transactions between merchants and consumers are more retail and wholesale.

2. Which is better, cross-border e-commerce or traditional foreign trade?

1. cross-border electronic commerce and the definition of traditional foreign trade

Cross-border electronic commerce refers to different trading objects in different countries or regions, who trade through e-commerce platform, complete payment and settlement on the platform, and deliver goods to buyers through international logistics. In short, cross-border e-commerce is a spatial extension of local e-commerce in various regions, so the most significant difference between cross-border e-commerce and local e-commerce is that cross-border e-commerce involves customs clearance and sales in destination countries.

2. The status quo of cross-border e-commerce and traditional foreign trade.

At present, as of 20 18, there are more than 6,000 registered e-commerce platforms, and the number of companies engaged in cross-border e-commerce export and retail business through various cross-border e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, ebay and AliExpress exceeds 500,000. In recent years, the retail trade volume of cross-border e-commerce has continued to grow rapidly, and the export sales of cross-border e-commerce in China has reached 4.3 trillion yuan in 20 16. In 20 17, it exceeded 510 billion yuan, and the growth rate was very bright, which was 18.6% higher than the same period of last year, far exceeding the growth rate of traditional foreign trade of 7.8%. It is predicted that by 20 19, the total export trade of cross-border e-commerce will reach 7.8 trillion yuan, accounting for the proportion of import and export trade since 2066.

3. Comparative analysis of cross-border electronic commerce and traditional foreign trade.

Traditional foreign trade is used to define the transaction process and the way to reach a transaction in traditional international trade. There are significant differences between traditional foreign trade and cross-border e-commerce, which are mainly divided into the following three points:

(1) trading chain

Trading chain refers to the link from commodity production to final consumption, which is basically composed of five rings, domestic producers, domestic traders, foreign distributors, foreign retailers and final consumers. There are only three links in the transaction chain of cross-border e-commerce, namely domestic producers, domestic traders and end consumers. In the transaction process of cross-border e-commerce, domestic traders, that is, sellers of cross-border e-commerce platforms, wholesale products from domestic manufacturers, then retail them on the platform and directly sell them to end consumers. Short trading chain has multiple advantages, the most important of which is profit. Cross-border e-commerce directly faces the end consumers and obtains the most profitable retail link in the transaction link, avoiding the exploitation of foreign dealers and ensuring profits.

(2) Capital flow

The payment cycle of cross-border e-commerce is much faster than that of traditional foreign trade. Traditional foreign trade mostly belongs to bulk purchase, except for a few high value-added products, most of them are land and sea transportation, and the payment cycle is also prolonged; Cross-border e-commerce belongs to the retail model, customers pay first, and the capital threshold of the whole industry is low; The seller delivers the goods by air, and the delivery time is mostly within two weeks, so the payment is fast. Therefore, one of the cores of cross-border e-commerce lies in the turnover of inventory funds, targeted selection of products and strict control of inventory.

(3) the intensity of competition

At present, the competition intensity of cross-border e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, ebay and wish is much lower than that of domestic e-commerce platforms such as Taobao, Tmall and JD.COM, and the market has not yet reached saturation level. Many categories of products still have very broad market prospects, and hundreds of sub-categories belong to undeveloped markets. These are the characteristics of cross-border e-commerce in market competition.

At present, domestic cross-border e-commerce has three characteristics. First, the number of small and medium-sized cross-border e-commerce sellers has surged. Second, the low-price winning model has shifted from traditional foreign trade to cross-border e-commerce export industry. Third, due to the geographical time difference, the pre-sales and after-sales service level of cross-border e-commerce is low.

4. Some thoughts on the status quo of cross-border e-commerce industry.

Under the background of the overall rapid growth of cross-border e-commerce export industry, its market system construction is not perfect, mainly including two aspects: First, government support policies are still in the experimental stage; Second, market norms have not been established, and industry benchmark demonstration enterprises have not been formed. Although most enterprises have made remarkable sales achievements, there are many drawbacks in their business models, so the whole industry has not been favored by the capital market too much, and so on, and the obstacles are endless.