Chinese e-commerce expands globally for 'Double 12' shopping festival

The annual shopping frenzy sparked by the Nov. 11 Singles' Day promotion is set to continue as business owners encouraged by last month's sales numbers gear up for a repeat on Dec. 12. Scheduled during peak shopping season – just weeks before New Year's Day and Christmas – the date is likely to see more Chinese brands reach beyond the domestic market and target international buyers.

Screenshot of UMKA Mall. [Photo: CGTN]

UMKA Mall is a Xiamen-based e-commerce company, but unlike other firms in China, UMKA is selling Chinese products to some 300 million customers in Russian-speaking countries. UMKA is aiming to increase sales volume by five to six times on Dec. 12.

“The popularity of Chinese online shopping holidays has grown and also reached overseas markets. That has helped overseas customers realize that today's Chinese brands can offer quality goods with competitive pricing,” said Chen Xianmou, vice president for UMKA Mall.

UMKA is not the only firm showing interest in bringing China-made products to overseas markets. A lot of Chinese equipment manufacturers for overseas brands are gaining attention from large e-commerce companies.

Wonders Technology was a speaker manufacturer in Shenzhen. The firm has been making products for brands easily found in Walmart and Best Buy for over a decade. Now, it has its own brand, DOSS, available on Amazon. After two years of work, sales of DOSS speakers now reach 75 million US dollars a year, and 95 percent of that comes from overseas markets.

“E-commerce helps us get data right away. There used to be the importers, the exporters and the wholesalers. When consumers' data reached us, it had already been filtered several times. Now, we can read comments directly from users, and that helps us react immediately to develop new products,” said Wonders Technology Chairman Li Yong.

In addition to DOSS, Amazon has helped thousands of Chinese manufacturers create hundreds of different brands available to markets outside China.

“It's the beauty of e-commerce and global e-commerce and it really transformed the ability of anyone with a great idea, a great product and a great price to deliver these to consumers,” said Eric Broussard, vice president for Amazon.

By helping Chinese manufacturers reach global buyers, Amazon is also taking a share of the pie. The firm strongly believes that cross-border e-commerce will continue to grow. According to CI Consulting, China's cross-border e-commerce will double in size by 2020. By then, it could account for more than one third of China's imports and exports – much higher than 2011's 7 percent.