武长虹：跨境品牌今天拼的是品质 审美和品牌温度

This content is compiled from a speech delivered by a Hangzhou municipal official at the 2026 Global New Brand AI Competitiveness Conference, outlining key developments and core insights for the cross-border e-commerce industry.

1. The nature of industry competition has shifted. In the past, cross-border e-commerce players competed on speed, scale and supply chain advantages; today, the sector has entered a new stage of global brand building, where competition centers on product quality, aesthetic design, and brand personality. The integration of AI and aesthetics is identified as the core direction for future industry growth.

2. Hangzhou has posted remarkable growth in cross-border e-commerce. As China’s first national comprehensive pilot zone for cross-border e-commerce, the city has seen its cross-border import and export volume surge 1,266-fold over the past decade, while the number of cross-border sellers has grown 325-fold. It has emerged as a global hub for AI innovation and a leading center for cross-border e-commerce development.

3. For ordinary entrepreneurs, Hangzhou offers policy incentives for brand building, independent website development, overseas trademark registration and other core business activities. The city welcomes all cross-border industry practitioners to establish their operations in Hangzhou.

This speech outlines industry trends and localization opportunities for global-going brands, with key takeaways as follows:

1. Consumer and industry trends are clear: Cross-border brand competition has shifted from price and scale to value competition, with the market placing growing emphasis on quality, aesthetics, and brand warmth. The integration of AI and aesthetics is the core pathway to rebuilding a brand’s global competitiveness, as AI can empower brands across the entire value chain from product selection and design to marketing.

2. Hangzhou offers an ideal foundation for brands going global. The city is home to 16 mature industrial clusters, boasts deep roots in traditional Chinese aesthetic culture, and has built a full-stack AI-powered cross-border enabling ecosystem, with complete supporting services in logistics, payment, compliance and more to lower brands’ global expansion costs.

3. Hangzhou provides strong policy support, with dedicated incentives for AI design, product innovation, global intellectual property layout and brand promotion. The city is actively welcoming all innovative brands to establish their operations locally.

This speech clarifies new industry directions and policy opportunities for cross-border sellers, with key insights as follows:

1. New growth opportunities have emerged: Cross-border e-commerce has entered a new stage of brand-focused development. The old competitive model relying solely on scale and supply chain advantages is outdated, with quality, aesthetics and brand warmth becoming the new core competitive advantages. AI + aesthetics is the next growing sector, and brand transformation will open up new growth avenues for sellers.

2. Clear policy dividends are available: Hangzhou has introduced multiple supporting policies for cross-border sellers, covering independent website development, brand building, overseas trademark registration and global brand promotion. It has also rolled out full-coverage training on new tax regulations to help sellers adapt to policy changes.

3. Strong supporting advantages are in place: Hangzhou has built a convenient integrated service system covering customs clearance, payment and logistics, plus a full-stack industrial ecosystem, that helps sellers lower global expansion costs and improve operational efficiency. The city welcomes all cross-border sellers to establish their operations in Hangzhou.

This speech outlines transformation directions and business opportunities for cross-border supply chain factories, with key takeaways as follows:

1. New requirements for product manufacturing and design have emerged: As the core of cross-border market competition has shifted, factories can no longer compete only on volume through OEM. They need to shift focus to improving quality, integrating aesthetic design, and building brand value to align with current market demand for branded products. Hangzhou’s rich resources in traditional Chinese aesthetics, such as Song Dynasty culture, provide abundant inspiration for product design.

2. Guidance for digital transformation: AI has permeated the entire cross-border e-commerce industry chain, and can empower all links from product selection and design to marketing and operations. Factories can leverage AI to optimize manufacturing and design, align with market demand faster, and advance their digital and e-commerce transformation.

3. New transformation opportunities are available: Hangzhou has 16 mature industrial clusters and has built a full-stack AI-enabled cross-border ecosystem, with policy support for factories pursuing product innovation and brand building. Factories can tap into Hangzhou’s ecosystem to transform from OEM to owning their own global brands, unlocking new growth space.

This speech clarifies industry development trends and business expansion opportunities for cross-border e-commerce service providers, with key insights as follows:

1. New industry trends have emerged: Cross-border e-commerce has entered a new stage of AI-driven global brand building, with AI + aesthetics integration becoming the new core industry direction. AI technology is needed to empower the entire cross-border e-commerce value chain, creating new service demand across product selection, design, marketing, operations, compliance and logistics, opening up broad industry growth space.

2. Clear client pain points and business opportunities: Global-going enterprises have strong demand for full-stack AI enabling services, compliance services, global traffic operation services and intelligent logistics services. Hangzhou is building a national leading AI cross-border service industry cluster, and is actively recruiting relevant service providers from around the world.

3. Hangzhou offers complete development infrastructure: The city has already built a complete, collaborative and efficient digital trade industry ecosystem, with a large client base of brands and sellers, and a favorable business environment driven by institutional innovation. Service providers that establish operations in Hangzhou gain access to rich resources to expand their business rapidly.

This speech provides multi-dimensional insights for the strategic development of cross-border e-commerce platforms, with key takeaways as follows:

1. New market demand is clear: Cross-border e-commerce has entered a new stage of brand-focused, AI-driven development. Platform merchants no longer prioritize only traffic; they now need platforms to provide full-stack AI empowerment, complete supporting services, and support for brand building and compliant operations. Platforms need to adjust their service systems to adapt to these new requirements.

2. New strategic development opportunities are available: Hangzhou has a solid cross-border e-commerce industrial base, hosting two-thirds of China’s cross-border e-commerce platforms, 16 industrial clusters, and a large pool of sellers and brand resources, plus complete institutional innovation supporting policies. Hangzhou welcomes cross-border platforms to deepen their local presence and jointly build a global digital trade hub.

3. Support for compliance risk management: Hangzhou has launched a tax-free traceability management scheme for the new cross-border e-commerce tax regulations, and rolled out full-coverage training to help platforms and merchants adapt to policy changes and mitigate compliance risks. Platforms that establish operations in Hangzhou can leverage local policy advantages to improve their services and attract more merchants.

This speech provides abundant research materials and updates on new industry developments for cross-border e-commerce researchers, with key insights as follows:

1. New industry development trends: After a decade of growth, cross-border e-commerce has evolved from an early stage of scale expansion into a new phase of global brand building. The core of competition has shifted from speed, scale and supply chain advantages to quality, aesthetics and brand warmth, with AI + aesthetics integration emerging as a new paradigm for global brand building – this is the core new change sweeping the industry.

2. A representative research sample for institutional innovation: As China’s first national comprehensive pilot zone for cross-border e-commerce, Hangzhou pioneered the "six systems and two platforms" top-level design that has since been replicated nationwide. It has rolled out three batches of 113 institutional innovation initiatives, hosted China’s first cross-border transaction of data intellectual property rights, and enacted China’s first local regulation on cross-border e-commerce. These institutional innovation outcomes provide rich typical cases for research.

3. A reference for new business models: Hangzhou has built a full-stack AI-enabled cross-border industrial ecosystem, developing a new integrated model that combines convenient "customs clearance + payment + logistics" services with a "livestreaming + platform + cross-border e-commerce + overseas warehouse" integrated development framework. This provides a new research sample for studying cross-border e-commerce ecosystem building in the digital trade era.