China Economy Coronavirus: e-commerce sales of China goods help pick up export slack amid pandemic

This article was initially published on South China Morning Post.

Sales of Chinese products to Europe, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand continue to grow through e-commerce channels despite a push by these countries to decouple from China economically.

And for some retailers, these online sales are helping to offset the slowdown in traditional face-to-face transactions amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Chinese exports rose 0.5 per cent in June from a year earlier, after dropping 3.3 per cent in May, though anecdotal evidence suggests that the coronavirus continues to wreak havoc on foreign demand in China’s biggest export markets.

Still, many customers have turned to online purchases from China, bolstered by the realisation that there are often few alternatives for quality and price.

China cross-border e-commerce consultant Azoya Group also said purchasing had increased from the US and Europe.

“I would say that political tensions have little impact on export trade because China is still the factory of the world, and there is nowhere else that can replicate the manufacturing infrastructure present within China to make and transport goods at such a large scale,” said Ker Zheng, Azoya’s marketing and partnerships manager.

“I’m sure firms will try to diversify their supply chains, but there is no one country that can replicate the manufacturing scale that China has, and it’s easier to manage supply chains within one country rather than dispersing it across multiple ones.”  Read More at SCMP.