Cross-border sales
While overseas consumers are increasingly discovering Chinese products through travel and social media, Chinese e-commerce platforms are also stepping up efforts to reach them in their home markets.
China's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 2.84 trillion yuan in 2025, up 4.8 percent year-on-year, the General Administration of Customs said at a press conference in July.
The challenge for Chinese businesses is turning overseas consumer interest into purchases and repeat business, with this year's overseas Singles Day shopping season already underway.
AliExpress launched its sales campaign on Nov 1, with promotions running through Nov 18 before moving into its Black Friday campaign. According to AliExpress data, the volume of goods stocked in its overseas warehouses ahead of this year's Singles Day online shopping rush rose 146 percent year-on-year.
George Wang, chief financial officer of Shoplazza, an AI-native e-commerce platform that has served more than 650,000 merchants worldwide, said merchants' priorities have shifted from simply setting up overseas online stores to learning how to operate and grow their businesses in international markets.
"Acquiring customers online has become harder, so merchants have to watch spending, conversion and margins much more closely. Over the past two years, one clear trend is that merchants' needs are shifting from 'help me set up an overseas online store' to 'help me run my overseas business'," said Wang.
"Social media helps consumers discover brands, and this sparks their interest, while content creators build trust through product reviews, demonstrations, and firsthand experiences," he said.
Overseas consumers usually pass through several processes before buying, including watching a product video on social media, reading a creator's review, and comparing options on a marketplace or the brand's own website.
"Some brands using Shoplazza's platform include links on their online stores that direct customers to Amazon, allowing consumers to choose their preferred purchasing channel. This approach lets the two channels work together, with the brand's own online store driving traffic to Amazon while helping merchants build lasting customer relationships through direct sales," said Wang.
On Oct 5, TikTok announced an AI shopping assistant and Buy Direct, a one-click checkout tool, with partners including Shoplazza.
"The shopping assistant allows consumers to ask about sizing, product details, delivery and stock before proceeding to the checkout, without leaving the TikTok app," he said.
