More HK merchants engage in cross-border sales
A growing number of Hong Kong e-commerce merchants are expanding their business to customers beyond the city, according to the latest report by e-commerce solution provider Shopline.
About 34 per cent of Shopline’s Hong Kong clients were engaged in cross-border sales last year, 7 percentage points higher than in previous years, according to the Hong Kong eCommerce White Paper released on Thursday.
Macau was the largest destination for Shopline cross-border sales, accounting for 37 per cent of total sales last year, while the United States was in second place with 14 per cent. Britain and Taiwan ranked third and fourth, respectively.
The trend reflects the interest among Hong Kong merchants in finding new ways to boost sales amid market challenges, as the city’s economy has yet to recover to pre-Covid levels and competition from online and offline rivals on the mainland has heated up.
The potential of cross-border trading has been demonstrated by the overseas popularity of Chinese online retailers such as fast-fashion brand Shein and Pinduoduo’s sister platform, Temu.
“We do observe the chances of cross-border [sales],” said Renee Lee, head of product for Shopline Hong Kong, adding the firm was developing features to help merchants improve their cross-border gross merchandise value (GMV).
The white paper showed artificial intelligence (AI) tools were able to improve overall sales performance, with the conversion rate up by 25 per cent and GMV rising by four times for merchants who used Shopline’s Smartpush AI tool.
Powered by generative AI, the tool is capable of customising email content for potential customers and adjusting marketing strategies based on autoanalysing consumer data.
“For cross-border merchants, generative AI tools are costeffective,” Shopline marketing director Ruby Chan said.
She added AI responded to inquiries from different time zones 24 hours a day, so merchants could save on labour costs.
Another trend flagged in the white paper was live-commerce sales. Data showed merchants using Shop Live boosted their order volume by nearly nine times last year over the previous year, compared with those not using it. This drove a nearly 40 per cent increase in sales revenue for these merchants, reflecting the strong potential for conversion in live commerce.
Headquartered in Singapore, Shopline said it had helped more than 600,000 merchants open online stores.
In 2020, the firm raised US$20 million from China’s livestreaming social media platform JOYY and venture capital firm Engage Capital.
It also received US$2 million in funding from CDIB Capital Group and the Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund, a not-forprofit initiative of Alibaba Group Holding, which owns the Post.