Problems of China's cross-border e-commerce development and ways to solve them

Considering the the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the development of crossborder e-commerce in China, it should be noticed that the pandemic has made global consumption show an obvious trend from offline to online and online, and foreign consumers' online procurement and consumption has gradually become a mainstream habit in the world, including China.

Therefore, the penetration rate of ecommerce in various countries has increased significantly in the past year. In the past few years, Chinese cross-border e-commerce enterprises have also begun to actively go overseas development and open new market areas.

However, in last year's closure wave, many cross-border e-commerce sellers also realized that the ceiling effect of cross-border ecommerce industry has gradually emerged, and it is bound to embark on a more compliant, professional and digital new market in the future. Nevertheless, due to the very different infrastructure construction, product advantages, foreign trade policies and cultural customs in different countries and regions, cross-border e-commerce faces numerous challenges in supply and demand matching and commodity supply chain services, and the development process is difficult.

Overall, there are two core problems in "channel docking" and "cross-border service" in cross-border business development. The key to solve these two problems lies in the construction and improvement of crossborder e-commerce service system at home and abroad. It is necessary to jointly build an interconnected ecological network through the strong alliance of domestic and foreign enterprises.

During the study, the main problems of the development of cross-border e-commerce in China were identified. Among them:

• 1)    The policy supervision system is not perfect.

• 2)    Cross border e-commerce trading environment needs to be improved.

• 3)    It is necessary to transfer the mode of foreign trade and adjust the structure.

• 4)    The industry has logistics problems [1].

To solve these problems, we propose the following measures:

• 1.    Open cross-border markets around the “Silk Road Economic Belt” [2].

• 2.    Build a bridge connecting the online trade between China and Central Asia.

In recent years, among cross-border trade merchants, there are two development strategies, "heavy mode" and "light mode".

The "heavy mode" is the local team for large-scale expansion, mainly in the international brands with strong resource ability.

Most small and medium-sized brands usually adopt the three-step strategy of "from light to heavy": first test individual products' acceptance in overseas markets at low cost; increase investment and enter all-round brand operation. If all these attempts are successful, local teams will be formed overseas for indepth operations. For small and mediumsized brands, only after the "light mode" is verified, it will increase the "heavy mode" investment.

For example, Yitong Cross-border Ecommerce was established in 2016. In 2017, the company independently developed "Yitong Online Trading Platform" was launched. In 2018, the company established a subsidiary in Kyrgyzstan, and then successively set up operation centers in Russianspeaking countries around the Silk Road Economic Belt. By the end of 2021, Yitong online trading platform has accumulated more than 100,000 buyers in Central Asia and Russia, with products covering 16 industries with high frequency of use in daily life [3].

All online trade platform to guarantee the sea, the high-quality platform service at the same time, provide logistics, international settlement, overseas storage and overseas sample display service, let small and mediumsized brand suppliers in overseas development.

For most domestic suppliers, overseas buyers' trust in their brands is not yet established, so customer access channels will directly determine their public brand awareness, which will have a profound impact on their long-term development in overseas markets. Yitong online trade platform has a good repu- tation in Central Asia, which can also help domestic cross-border merchants to form a quality public brand awareness, integrate their own brand products into the lifestyle of Central Asian consumers, and become a part of the new consumption trend.

Through five years of efforts, Yitong has gradually built and improved the offline and online supply chain channels between China, the five Central Asian countries, Russia and other Russian-speaking countries. This trade bridge enables many overseas buyers and Chinese suppliers to match their supply [4].

As stable and efficient cross-border new infrastructure gradually forming, the future all the way will give full play to the new entity enterprise advantage, relying on its own supply chain infrastructure and resources advantage, let more Chinese brands and services accelerate "going out", overseas brands businesses accelerate "in", in power to promote China's economy "double cycle" at the same time [2].

Thus, the following conclusion can be drawn.

Cross-border e-commerce occupies a pivotal role in the e-commerce market. China's cross-border e-commerce is still in the early development, the government also has certain policy support, development potential, but there are also management policy defects, cross-border customs barriers, logistics barriers, credit and other problems. The mature cross-border e-commerce platforms bring new markets to many enterprises. Even if they cannot bring benefits to enterprises in a short time, they can open the market for enterprises and enhance their visibility to a certain extent.