Unit 1

Text A Cross-Border E-commerce Overview

The term“cross-border E-commerce”has become the darling of the media in recent years.The entire cross-border E-commerce industry has firmly stood at the first place of the capital market.Although various kinds of news reports, papers, blogs, and information are flooding in the Internet, what is cross-border E-commerce? I believe many industry insiders still cannot clearly explain it.

1. What Is Cross-Border E-commerce

Cross-border E-commerce is a kind of E-commerce.As the largest E-commerce platform in the world, Amazon entered Shanghai Free Trade Zone on August 20, 2014.The memorandum signed on cooperation shows that“Amazon will open its new cross-border E-commerce platform in the free trade zone”.From here we know that cross-border E-commerce should be translated from the English.So, what exactly is the definition of cross-border E-commerce?

In Wikipedia, cross-border E-commerce refers to an international business activity where the trading entities that belong to different customs achieve transactions, payments, and cross-border logistics delivery through the E-commerce platform.

2. The Model of Cross-Border E-commerce

2.1 The Difference between Cross-Border E-commerce and Traditional Foreign Trade

We’ve made definition for what is a cross-border E-commerce, but the dispute in the pattern of cross-border E-commerce has lasted a long period.In fact such arguments are nothing more than to confusing cross-border E-commerce with the traditional foreign trade.Then, what on earth are the differences between cross-border E-commerce and traditional foreign trade?

2.1.1 The Cost Differs

Traditional foreign trade is mainly concentrated on large quantities of goods, and then the goods enter into a multiple-level distribution by overseas logistics companies.Finally the goods will eventually reach the end consumers (enterprises or individuals), while cross-border E-commerce is directly facing to the end customers.

2.1.2 The Process Differs

In traditional trade, the import and export process are cumbersome, while cross-border E-commerce companies require the links be reduced as much as possible.They can even send goods directly to consumers.

2.1.3 The Ways of Spread Differ

Traditional trade uses information platforms such as wholesale message, mail, and exhibitions to disseminate information.Cross-border E-commerce companies sell products directly to consumers through platforms such as Amazon, e Bay, and Wish.

2.1.4 The Model Differs

Because the traditional trade uses information flow to spread, the basic model is B2B, while cross-border E-commerce can reduce intermediate links, therefore the goods is mostly sold directly by the platform.And its main model is B2C.

Obviously, the cross-border E-commerce model and the traditional foreign trade model make a big difference, so what distinguishes traditional foreign trade from cross-border E-commerce models? Cross-border business is divided into import and export.Similarly, the cross-border E-commerce model can also be divided into import cross-border E-commerce and export cross-border E-commerce.For import cross-border E-commerce, it is usually the domestic consumers that visit overseas sellers to select goods.After the orders are placed, overseas sellers directly send international express delivery to consumers.Export cross-border E-commerce is just the opposite, domestic sellers directly deliver goods to the hands of overseas buyers.

2.2 Import Cross-Border E-commerce

2.2.1 M2C Model

It is an investment platform, and it is manufacturer-to-customer.In this model, merchants need to obtain qualifications and authorizations for overseas retail sales.The products are directly mailed overseas and can provide local return service, but usually the price is relatively high.

2.2.2 B2C Model

It means self-operated and direct purchasing, and it is business-to-customer.In this model, the platform will generally directly participates in the flow of goods purchasing and logistics warehousing.For example, buying a television set from an electronics retailer would be a B2C transaction.

2.2.3 C2C Model

Consumer to consumer, or C2C, is the business model that facilitates commerce between private individuals.Whether it’s for goods or services, this category of E-commerce connects people to do business with one another.The goal of a C2C is to enable these relationships, helping buyers and sellers locate each other.Customers can benefit from the competition for products and easily find products that may otherwise be difficult to locate.

2.2.4 B2B Model

That is business-to-business which refers to commerce between two or more businesses such as those involving a manufacturer and wholesaler or retailer.In general, it is used to improve efficiency for companies.

2.2.5 Overseas E-commerce Direct Mail

The representative company is Amazon.The model is characterized by having a global high-quality supply chain system and a wealth of SKUs.

2.2.6 Third Partner

In fact, there are two types of this model: one is technical, and the other is operational.Generally, there are advantages in the early stage of cross-border E-commerce, easy to start, low cost, rich SKUs, but lack of competitiveness, and need real-time updates and other strong technical support.

2.2.7 Content Sharing/Community Information

This model is the promotion base for brands, because it mainly achieves natural conversion through content.

2.3 Export Cross-Border E-commerce

2.3.1 B2B Model

It is divided into two types: information service platform and transaction service platform.For the information service platform, it is mainly to conduct information distribution or information search to complete transaction through a third-party platform.The representative companies are Alibaba International Station and Global Sources.The transaction service platform is to build a platform business model that enables online transactions and payments between supply and demand parties.Representative companies include Dunhuang.com and the others.

2.3.2 B2C/C2C Model

It is divided into an open platform and a self-operated platform.The open platform realizes the systematic docking of applications and platforms, and builds an ecosystem around the platform itself.The representative platform includes Amazon, Wish, Ali Express, e Bay, Lazada, and other small-scale platforms.The self-operated platform manages the products in a unified way.It trades online and delivers products to consumers through logistics.

3. Dilemmas of Cross-Border E-commerce

Although the cross-border E-commerce has been developing at a high speed in recent years, it has also received great support with policies.However, the entire process of cross-border E-commerce needs the integration and cooperation of procurement, supply, logistics, distribution, payment, and after-sales service to achieve stable development.At present, it still faces the following dilemmas.

3.1 Limited Supply Channels

For cross-border E-commerce, the supply channels is of utmost importance.It is difficult to guarantee the quantity and quality of goods through limited channels.

3.2 Logistics Constraints

Logistics is a core factor in both cross-border E-commerce and traditional trade.At present, logistics is also a major bottleneck among cross-border E-commerce.Restrictions are mainly reflected in two aspects.First, there are still large gaps between the logistics companies in different countries.If trans-shipment the goods, the supply chain will easily break and eventually affect the logistics speed of goods.The usual solution is to establish overseas warehouses.Another dilemma is how to increase the turnover of overseas warehouses and reduce operating costs.

3.3 Online Payment Dilemma

The development of the third-party payment industry is undeniably rapid, such as Alipay and Paypal have been eligible for cross-border E-commerce.Even so, payment still face many difficulties like customs clearance and tax refunds.In cross-border business, convert, credit, security, and risk are also factors of restricting.

3.4 After-sales Service Problems

After-sales services are very important links.The after-sales problem of cross-border E-commerce is also an important factor that discourages consumers because of the numerous links in the entire process, such as customs clearance, logistics, and so on.The after sale cost is high.

With the continuous development of cross-border E-commerce, the above problems are in fact still inevitable.However, when you understand China brands, these problems can be solved.

（1）China brands have more than one million products covering more than 100 categories.The entire suppliers are more than 10,000, with more than 1,000 brand suppliers.The quality inspection rate is 100%, guaranteeing the quality of all products on the platform.

（2）China brands cooperate with 1000+ leading logistics companies in the world, with more than 10,000 logistics lines, covering more than 200 countries and regions in the world and China brands storage covers more than 20 countries around the world.

（3）For the after-sales services, after cooperating with China brands, we will provide 6×24 hours of customer service, 100% real-time online reply, and the customer service language covers Chinese, English, German, French, and other 10 languages.

4. Trends of Cross-Border E-commerce

Most of the above-mentioned cross-border E-commerce dilemma exist at the technical level.I believe the difficulties will be solved one by one with the vigorous development of the cross-border E-commerce industry and the support of the governments’ series of policies.Let’s forecast the future trend of cross-border E-commerce.

4.1 Rapid Growth

Throughout the past few years, the average annual growth rate of the cross-border E-commerce industry has been above 30%.In fact, few industries can maintain such a high growth rate, because the premise is that the environment will not change within a few years.Therefore, we can boldly predict that the cross-border E-commerce industry will continue to maintain rapid growth in the next 3-5 years.

4.2 Big Seller

Any tuyere industry will experience a process of reshu?ing.In the future, the overall resources of the cross-border E-commerce industry will be further concentrated on the large platforms and big sellers.This trend is unavoidable, but it does not mean that small and medium sellers have no chance at all.They will generally enter the vertical and subdivided markets.

4.3 Professional Competition

For the high-speed development of the cross-border E-commerce industry, it can be said that the package does not keep up with the pace of development, but it does not mean this will always be the case.For cross-border E-commerce players, the requirements must be higher.In the future, the competition will be more professional.

4.4 Standardization

For an industry to have a benign development, there must be standardized policies.For the cross-border E-commerce industry, whether it is import or export, there are now more and more related policies.The industry will be more standardized in the future, and for the practitioners, there will be more rationalization requirements.

New Words

E-commerce　['i:k?m?:s]　n.電子商務

blog　[bl?g]　 n.博客

explain　[?k?sple?n]　v.解釋

platform　 [?pl?tf?:m]　 n.平臺

memorandum　[?mem??r?nd?m]　 n.備忘錄

custom　[?k?st?m]　n.海關，關稅

transaction　[tr?n?z?k?n]　n.交易，業務，事務；辦理，處理

payment　 [?pe?m?nt]　n.付款，支付

logistics　 [l??d??st?ks]　 n.物流；后勤

definition　[?def??n??n]　 n.定義；解釋

dispute　[d??spju:t]　v.辯論，爭論

pattern　[?p?tn]　n.模式

argument　 [?ɑ:gj?m?nt]　n.爭論，爭吵；論據

cost　[k?st]　 n.成本；代價；花費，費用

distribution　 [?d?str??bju:?n]　 n.分配，分布

consumer　[k?n?sju:m?]　n.消費者，顧客

individual　[??nd??v?d???l]　n.個人；個體adj.個人的；個別的

process　[?pr??ses]　n.過程

import　[??mp?:t]　n.進口，進口商品；輸入vt.輸入，進口

export　 [?eksp?:t]　v.出口，輸出

cumbersome　[?k?mb?s?m]　adj.緩慢復雜的；麻煩的

message　 [?mes?d?]　n.信息；消息v.給……發消息

mail　[me?l]　 n.郵件

exhibition　[?eks??b??n]　 n.展覽；展覽品，陳列品

disseminate　 [d??sem?ne?t]　vt.散布，傳播

mode　 [m??d]　n.模式，方式adj.中間的，中級的

intermediate　 [??nt??mi:d??t]　 n.中間物，中間人vi.調解

distinguish　[d??st??gw??]　v.區分，辨別

express　[?k?spres]　vt.快遞

merchant　 [?m?:t??nt]　n.商人；批發商；店主；零售商adj.商人的；商業的

qualification　[?kw?l?f??ke??n]　n.資格，授權；條件，限制；合格證書

authorization　[??:θ?ra??ze??n]　 n.授權，批準

retail　[?ri:te?l]　 n.零售vt.零售；零賣

local　[?l??kl]　adj.當地的，本地的

self-operated　[self'?p?re?t?d]　 adj.自營的

warehousing　[?we?ha?z??]　n.入倉庫，倉庫貯存

facilitate　 [f??s?l?te?t]　vt.促進，助長；使容易

connect　 [k??nekt]　vt.連接；使……有聯系vi.連接；建立關系

relationship　 [r??le??n??p]　 n.關系，聯系

wholesaler　['h??lse?l?]　 n.批發商

retailer　[?ri:te?l?]　 n.零售商，零售店

representative　 [?repr??zent?t?v]　 adj.典型的，有代表性的n.代表

characterize　 [?k?r?kt?ra?z]　 vt.具有……的特征

operational　 [??p??re???nl]　adj.運營的，經營的

community　 [k??mju:n?ti]　n.社區；社會團體

promotion　[pr??m???n]　 n.（商品等的）推廣；促進，增進；提升，升級

brand　 [br?nd]　n.商標，品牌

conversion　[k?n?v?:?n]　 n.變換，轉變

search　[s?:t?]　v.搜尋，搜索n.搜索；調查

online　 [??n?la?n]　adj.在線的；聯網的；聯機的

ecosystem　[?i:k??s?st?m]　 n.生態系統

small-scale　 [?sm?:l?ske?l]　adj.小規模的；小型的

dilemma　 [d??lem?]　 n.窘境，困境

integration　[??nt??gre??n]　n.結合；整合；一體化

procurement　[pr??kj??m?nt]　 n.采購

stable　 [?ste?bl]　adj.穩定的；持久的

utmost　[??tm??st]　adj.極度的，最大的n.極限，最大限度

quality　[?kw?l?t?]　n.質量，品質

constraint　[k?n?stre?nt]　 n.限制，約束

factor　 [?f?kt?]　 n.因素

bottleneck　[?b?tlnek]　n.瓶頸

restriction　[r??str?k?n]　n.限制，束縛

reflect　 [r??flekt]　 v.反映

solution　[s??lu:?n]　 n.解決方案

turnover　 [?t?:n??v?]　 n.營業額，成交量

undeniably　 [??nd?'na??bl?]　 adv.不可否認地，無可辯爭地

convert　[k?n?v?:t]　vt.兌換，換算

discourage　[d?s?k?r?d?]　 vt.使氣餒；使沮喪；阻礙

reply　[r??pla?]　 n.回答，答復；反應vt.回應，做出反應

vigorous　 [?v?g?r?s]　adj.有力的；充滿活力的；朝氣蓬勃的

boldly　 ['b??ldl?]　 adv.大膽地

reshu?e　 [?ri:???fl]　 n&vi.改組；重新洗牌

unavoidable　 [??n??v??d?bl]　 adj.不可避免的

vertical　[?v?:t?kl]　 adj.垂直的

subdivide　[?s?bd?va?d]　 vt.再分，細分

standardization　 [?st?nd?da?'ze??n]　 n.標準化；規格化；規范化

practitioner　 [pr?k?t???n?]　n.從業者；專門人才

rationalization　 [?r??n?la?'ze??n]　n.合理化

Phrases

cross-border E-commerce　 跨境電子商務

capital market　 資本市場

free trade zone　自由貿易區

international business　 國際商業

foreign trade　對外貿易

confuse...with...　把……與……混淆

be concentrated on　 集中在

overseas logistics company　海外物流公司

as much as possible　 盡可能

ways of spread　傳播方式

information flow　 信息流，數據流

investment platform　 投資平臺

return service　 退貨服務

direct purchasing　 直接采購

television set　 電視機

business model　業務模式，商務模式

private individual　個人

direct mail　 直接郵寄

supply chain　供應鏈

content sharing　內容共享，內容分享

third-party platform　 第三方平臺

systematic docking　 系統對接

self-operated platform　 自營平臺

after-sales service　售后服務

supply channel　供應渠道

large gap　大的差距

operating cost　 營業費用，營業成本

third-party payment　 第三方支付

customs clearance　結關，驗關

tax refund　退稅

quality inspection rate　 質量檢驗率

technical level　 技術層面

series of　 一系列

annual growth rate　年增長速度

tuyereindustry　風口行業

subdividedmarket　細分市場

keepupwith　繼續做；熟悉；保持聯系

Abbreviations

B2B（Businessto Business）　 企業對企業電子商務

B2C（Businessto Customer）　企業對個人電子商務

M2C（Manufacturerto Consumer）　生產廠家對消費者電子商務

C2C（Consumerto Consumer）　 個人對個人電子商務

SKU（Stock Keeping Unit）　 庫存量單位，最小存貨單位

Reference Translation

跨境電子商務概述

近年來，“跨境電子商務”一詞已成為媒體的寵兒。整個跨境電子商務行業穩立于資本市場的第一位。雖然各種新聞報道、論文、博客和信息在互聯網上涌現，但什么是跨境電子商務？相信很多業內人士仍然無法解釋清楚。

1．什么是跨境電子商務

跨境電子商務是一種電子商務。作為全球最大的電子商務平臺，亞馬遜于2014年8月20日進入上海自由貿易區。簽署的合作備忘錄顯示，“亞馬遜將在自由貿易區開設新的跨境電子商務平臺”。從這里我們知道跨境電子商務一詞應該由英語翻譯而來。那么，跨境電子商務到底該如何定義？

在維基百科中，跨境電子商務是指一種國際商業活動，其中屬于不同海關的交易實體通過電子商務平臺實現交易、支付和跨境物流交付。

2．跨境電子商務模式

2.1 跨境電子商務與傳統外貿的區別

我們已經定義了什么是跨境電子商務，但跨境電子商務模式的爭議持續了很長時間。事實上，這些爭論只不過是將跨境電子商務與傳統外貿混為一談。跨境電子商務與傳統對外貿易究竟有何不同？

2.1.1 費用不同

傳統外貿主要集中在大量商品上，然后由海外物流公司進行多層次的分銷，最終貨物到達終端消費者（企業或個人），而跨境電子商務則直接面向終端客戶。

2.1.2 過程不同

在傳統貿易中，進出口過程煩瑣，而跨境電子商務公司則要求盡可能減少環節。它們甚至可以直接向消費者發送商品。

2.1.3 傳播方式不同

傳統貿易使用批發消息、郵件和展覽等信息平臺來傳播信息。跨境電子商務公司通過亞馬遜、e Bay和期望的平臺直接向消費者銷售產品。

2.1.4 模式不同

由于傳統行業利用信息流來傳播，其基本模式是B2B。而跨境電子商務可以減少中間環節，因此大多是由平臺直接銷售，其主要模式是B2C。

顯然，跨境電子商務模式和傳統外貿模式有很大差異，那么傳統外貿模式與跨境電子商務模式的區別是什么呢？跨境業務分為進口和出口兩類。同樣，跨境電子商務模式也可以分為進口跨境電子商務和出口跨境電子商務。對于進口跨境電子商務，通常是國內消費者訪問海外賣家來選擇商品。訂單下達后，海外賣家直接向消費者發送國際快遞。出口跨境電子商務正好相反，國內賣家直接將貨物交到海外消費者手中。

2.2 進口跨境電子商務

2.2.1 M2C模式

這是一個投資平臺，是廠家對客戶的。在這種模式下，廠家需要獲得海外零售的資格和授權。產品直接郵寄到海外，可以提供本地退貨服務，但價格通常比較高。

2.2.2 B2C模式

這意味著自營和直接采購，即企業對客戶。在這種模式下，平臺一般會直接參與物流采購和物流倉儲。例如，從電子產品零售商處購買電視機是B2C交易。

2.2.3 C2C模式

客戶對客戶，即C2C，是促進個體與個體之間交易的商業模型。無論它是用于商品還是服務，這種電子商務把人們聯系在一起，互相做生意。C2C的目標是實現這些關系，幫助匹配買方和賣方。客戶可以從產品競爭中獲益，并且很容易找到在其他模式下可能很難找到的商品。

2.2.4 B2B模式

這是企業對企業，指的是兩個或更多企業之間的商業行為，如涉及制造商和批發商或零售商的企業。一般來說，它用于提高公司的效率。

2.2.5 海外電子商務直郵

代表公司是亞馬遜。該模式的特點是擁有全球高品質的供應鏈系統和大量庫存。

2.2.6 第三方

事實上，這種模式有兩種類型：一種是技術型，另一種是運營型。一般來說，跨境電子商務初期具有優勢，易啟動、低成本、豐富的庫存，但缺乏競爭力，需要實時更新和其他強有力的技術支持。

2.2.7 內容共享/社區信息

這種模式是品牌的推廣基礎，因為它主要通過內容實現自然轉換。

2.3 出口跨境電子商務

2.3.1 B2B模式

它分為兩種類型：信息服務平臺和交易服務平臺。對于信息服務平臺而言，主要是通過第三方平臺進行信息發布或信息搜索來完成交易。其代表公司是阿里巴巴國際站和環球資源。交易服務平臺是建立一個平臺業務模型，支持供需雙方之間的在線交易和支付。其代表公司包括敦煌網等。

2.3.2 B2C / C2C模式

它分為開放平臺和自營平臺。開放平臺實現了應用程序和平臺的系統對接，并圍繞平臺自身構建了一個生態系統。代表性平臺包括亞馬遜、Wish、Ali Express、e Bay、Lazada和其他小型平臺。自營平臺以統一的方式管理產品。它實現在線交易，通過物流向消費者提供產品。

3．跨境電子商務的困境

雖然近年來跨境電子商務發展迅速，也有很多政策支持。但是，跨境電子商務需要整合采購、供應、物流、配送、支付和售后服務才能實現穩定發展。目前，它仍然面臨以下困境。

3.1 有限的供應渠道

對于跨境電子商務，供應渠道至關重要。有限的渠道很難保證貨物的數量和質量。

3.2 物流限制

物流是跨境電子商務和傳統貿易的核心因素。目前，物流也是跨境電子商務的主要瓶頸。限制主要體現在兩個方面。首先，不同國家的物流公司存在較大差距，導致運送貨物的供應鏈很容易斷裂，最終影響物流速度。通常的解決方案是建立海外倉庫。另一個困境是如何增加海外倉庫的營業額并降低運營成本。

3.3 在線支付困境

第三方支付行業的發展無疑是迅速的，例如，支付寶和Paypal已經能進行跨境電子商務了。即便如此，付款仍然面臨著諸如清關和退稅等許多困難。在跨境業務中，換匯、信貸、安全和風險也是限制因素。

3.4 售后服務問題

售后服務是非常重要的環節。跨境電子商務的售后問題也是消費者關注的焦點，因為整個過程中有許多環節，如通關、物流等。售后服務的成本很高。

隨著跨境電子商務的不斷發展，實際上上述問題仍然是不可避免的。但是，當你了解了中國品牌后，這些問題都可以解決。

（1）中國擁有超過100萬種的品牌產品，涵蓋100多個品類。供應商超過一萬家，其中1000多家是品牌供應商。質量檢驗率為100%，能夠保證平臺上所有產品的質量。

（2）中國品牌與全球1000多家領先的物流公司合作，擁有10000多條物流專線，覆蓋全球200多個國家和地區，中國品牌倉儲覆蓋全球20多個國家。

（3）對于售后服務，與中國品牌合作后，我們將提供6×24小時的客戶服務，100%的實時在線回復，客戶服務語言涵蓋漢語、英語、德語、法語等10種語言。

4．跨境電子商務的趨勢

上述跨境電子商務困境大多數存在于技術層面。我相信隨著跨境電子商務產業的蓬勃發展和政府的一系列政策的支持，這些困難將逐一解決。我們來預測一下跨境電子商務的未來趨勢。

4.1 快速增長

在過去幾年中，跨境電子商務行業的年均增長率已超過30%。事實上，很少有行業能夠保持如此高的增長率，因為前提是環境不會在幾年內發生變化。因此，我們可以大膽預測，跨境電子商務行業在未來3到5年內將繼續保持快速增長。

4.2 大賣家

任何風口行業都將經歷重新洗牌的過程。未來，跨境電子商務行業的整體資源將進一步集中于大型平臺和大賣家。這種趨勢是不可避免的，但這并不意味著中小賣家根本沒有機會，它們通常會進入垂直市場和細分市場。

4.3 專業競爭

由于跨境電子商務行業的高速發展，可以說一攬子計劃跟不上發展的步伐，但并不意味著總是如此。對于跨境電子商務參與者來說，要求必須更高。在未來，競爭將更加專業化。

4.4 標準化

一個行業想要良性發展，就必須有標準化的政策。對于跨境電子商務行業，無論是進口還是出口，現在都有越來越多的相關政策。未來行業將更加標準化，對于從業者來說，將會有更多的合理化要求。