杭州市商务局局长王永芳：杭州新电商发展的探索与实践

This article shares Hangzhou's development achievements and practical experience in the new e-commerce sector by the Director of the Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce at the 2024 Silk Road E-Commerce Day. General readers can access core insights about Hangzhou's e-commerce development from the content.

1. Core development achievements: In 2023, Hangzhou's online retail sales reached 1.23219 trillion yuan, ranking first in Zhejiang Province in scale. The added value of the e-commerce industry hit 230.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13%, accounting for 11.5% of the city's GDP. Its growth rate outpaced that of Hangzhou's overall GDP by 7.4 percentage points, making e-commerce the core engine of the city's economic growth.

2. Five core practices: Hangzhou has established a complete policy framework for e-commerce development, built a nationally leading live-streaming e-commerce ecosystem, rolled out full-scenario digital consumer services, laid a leading foundation for cross-border e-commerce development across the country, and innovated models for international e-commerce cooperation. Innovative projects such as Yaowang X27, an online-offline integrated new consumption complex, have emerged here, allowing readers to get a first-hand look at the latest form of domestic e-commerce development.

This article discloses the latest trends and policy dividends of e-commerce development in Hangzhou, providing multi-dimensional reference for brand owners' strategic layout.

1. Consumer trend insights: Hangzhou has formed a multi-layered, multi-scenario digital consumption landscape, where deep online-offline integration has become the mainstream consumption pattern, and demand for digital lifestyle consumption remains strong. There is broad market space for domestic Chinese IPs, cultural creative products from time-honored brands, and digital transformation of physical brands, enabling brands to adjust their product layout to match market demand.

2. Channel expansion opportunities: Hangzhou boasts China's most mature live-streaming e-commerce ecosystem, hosting more than 10,000 live-streaming related enterprises. Five of China's top 8 MCN institutions are headquartered in Hangzhou, and the city also gathers two-thirds of China's cross-border e-commerce retail import and export platforms. Brands can expand their sales reach by connecting with Hangzhou's live-streaming supply chain and cross-border channels.

3. Policy dividends: Hangzhou has introduced multiple supporting policies for new e-commerce and "live-streaming plus brick-and-mortar" development. Brands can apply for policy support when laying out new channels to reduce transformation costs.

The e-commerce development trends and policies shared in this article provide clear opportunity guidance and experience reference for sellers of all types.

1. Clear policy benefits: From the 14th Five-Year E-commerce Development Plan to policies supporting high-quality new e-commerce development, consumption stimulation and cross-border e-commerce facilitation, Hangzhou has rolled out nearly 100 supporting policies and launched a total of 280 cross-border e-commerce facilitation measures. Sellers that set up operations in Hangzhou can enjoy multiple policy subsidies and convenience.

2. Defined growth opportunities: For the domestic market, sellers can leverage Hangzhou's mature live-streaming ecosystem and MCN resources to布局 live-streaming sales, and replicate Hangzhou's models of "live-streaming for common prosperity" and online-offline integration to expand sales channels. For cross-border exports, as China's first comprehensive pilot zone for cross-border e-commerce, Hangzhou has complete supporting infrastructure covering platforms, payment and logistics. In 2023, cross-border exports accounted for 10.7% of Hangzhou's total foreign trade, indicating enormous room for growth.

3. Abundant actionable experience: Models such as live-streaming empowerment for physical businesses and 24/7 live-streaming complexes are valuable references for sellers.

Hangzhou's practical experience in new e-commerce development provides clear directional insights for physical factories' transformation and business expansion.

1. Product design and production direction: Digital penetration is now extremely high on the consumer end. Live-streaming e-commerce and new consumption scenarios see strong demand for domestic goods, cultural creative products from time-honored brands, and cost-effective physical products. Factories can adjust their product design and production orientation to align with these demands and adapt to consumption needs of new channels.

2. Ample business opportunities: Hangzhou has introduced targeted policies to encourage manufacturing enterprises to develop "live-streaming plus" business and support factories to connect with the live-streaming supply chain system. Factories can reach end consumers directly via live-streaming, cutting out intermediate links to boost profit margins. They can also leverage Hangzhou's complete cross-border e-commerce infrastructure to expand export sales and enter overseas markets.

3. Clear transformation insights: Hangzhou's practice proves that deep integration of e-commerce and the real economy can effectively drive empowerment and efficiency improvement. Proactive digital transformation and access to new e-commerce channels can deliver faster growth than traditional channels, which is an important development direction for physical factories going forward.

Hangzhou's practice in new e-commerce development reveals the latest trends and demand in the e-commerce service industry, providing reference for business layout for all types of service providers.

1. Clear industry development trends: E-commerce business models are diversifying, with live-streaming e-commerce, cross-border e-commerce and online-offline integrated new retail maintaining rapid growth and broad market space. Hangzhou alone has more than 10,000 live-streaming related enterprises and 63,000 cross-border e-commerce sellers, driving sustained growth in demand for various supporting services.

2. Clear core customer demands: Different market players have distinct service needs. Domestic merchants require live-streaming supply chain and digital scenario building services, while cross-border sellers need compliance, payment, logistics and overseas warehouse services. The live-streaming industry has already begun adopting new technologies such as digital humans and the metaverse, leading to rapid growth in demand for related technical services.

3. Abundant international business opportunities: With the rapid development of Silk Road e-commerce and international e-commerce cooperation, there is a large service gap in global e-commerce talent development and cross-border infrastructure construction. Service providers can partner with relevant international cooperation projects to expand their overseas business footprint.

Hangzhou's exploration in new e-commerce development provides multiple references for platform operators' operations, merchant recruitment and strategic layout.

1. Clear market demand: Merchants of all types have strong demand for complete industrial ecosystems, compliance standards and policy support. If platforms locate their operations in Hangzhou, where industrial clusters are well-developed, they can share access to mature supply chains and talent resources to reduce operating costs.

2. Strategic direction reference: Live-streaming e-commerce, cross-border e-commerce and online-offline integrated consumption are now the mainstream directions of the industry, and Hangzhou has already worked out a mature development path. Platforms can benchmark against Hangzhou's experience to optimize their own business layout, for example by improving live-streaming ecosystem services, expanding cross-border business segments, and building online-offline integrated consumption scenarios.

3. Reference for merchant recruitment and risk mitigation: Hangzhou has abundant high-quality resources in live-streaming supply chains, physical brands and cross-border sellers, as well as official matching platforms such as the Silk Road E-Commerce Cooperation Fair. Platforms can leverage these events for merchant recruitment and connect with global resources. They can also reference Hangzhou's experience in standard and rule development to improve their platform compliance system and mitigate operational risks.

The exploration and practice of new e-commerce development in Hangzhou shared in this article serve as a typical sample of China's e-commerce industry development, with important reference value for e-commerce research.

1. Clear new industry trends: Domestic e-commerce has now been fully integrated into the construction of China's domestic demand system, and plays a notable role in eliminating local monopolies and promoting the development of a unified national market. Live-streaming e-commerce and cross-border e-commerce have become core drivers of economic and foreign trade growth. At the international level, e-commerce cooperation has expanded from business cooperation to industry-education integration and standard export. To date, eWTP has been implemented in 12 countries and regions, giving rise to many new cooperation models.

2. Reference for policy innovation inspiration: Hangzhou has built a complete policy system ranging from top-level planning to supporting policies for segmented fields, and has led the development of 69 standards related to cross-border e-commerce and overseas warehouses. This policy innovation path provides a replicable sample for other regions developing their e-commerce industries.

3. Diversified innovative business models: A variety of innovative business models have emerged in Hangzhou, including live-streaming empowerment for physical businesses, live-streaming common prosperity workshops, and 24-hour online-offline integrated commercial complexes, all of which deserve in-depth research and summary.