Middlemen, overseas warehouses help drive up China's e-commerce exports

Increasing number of producers are also selling directly to consumers

- Joyce ZK Lim

Mr Pi Jiawen, 25, knew nothing about e-commerce when he started selling mobile phone accessories online last September. Today, the former construction project supervisor earns between 30,000 yuan (S$5,574) and 40,000 yuan a month in net profits from buyers outside China.

He sources his wares – the latest from earbud cases to screen protectors – at Shenzhen’s Huaqiangbei, the country’s largest electronics wholesale market. He then sells them on TikTok Shop, where he receives about 100 orders a day from users of the popular short-video app’s online marketplace.

The items are sent directly from factories in Shenzhen to one of TikTok’s warehouses in China, and the platform takes care of forwarding the goods on to buyers in the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam.

“It is not difficult to become an e-commerce seller, and you can learn the ropes fairly quickly,” said Mr Pi, who is based in Jiangxi and started turning profits in his third month on the job.

Many of his friends are looking to get into the business, he told The Straits Times. “The domestic market is overly juan (involuted), with too much competition and very low profit margins. You can earn much more selling overseas.”

Spurred by these enterprising middlemen, as well as a rise in home-grown e-commerce platforms that connect domestic producers and sellers with more consumers abroad, exports from China through online sales have surged in recent years.

In 2023, China’s cross-border e-commerce exports grew 19.6 per cent year on year to reach 1.83 trillion yuan.

In June, the government released policy guidelines to step up such exports – a source of growth for the economy.