Chengdu busy reaching out to customers on the Web

Visitors try two-dimensional code services at an international e-commerce expo in Guangzhou. A number of Chinese cities, including Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, are promoting e-commerce as a new and vital means to enhance their local economy. Zou Zhongpin / China Daily

E-commerce to focus on retail, cross-border trade, service sector, commerce bureau says

Chengdu plans to create more e-commerce businesses within a decade, in a bid to give the city an edge over competitors in the fields of heavy industry, low-profit export manufacturing and estate development.

Eager to diversify its economy, Chengdu's government implemented a number of policies, such as Chengdu's E-commerce Development Plan (2012-2015) and Promoting the Quick and Healthy Development of Chengdu's E-commerce Industry (2013-2015), to assist in such things as online payment services and cross-border logistics, as well as offering favorable policies to attract e-commerce enterprises from other parts of the country to settle in the city.

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Peng Jun, director of the commercial service department at the Chengdu commerce bureau, said that as e-commerce has grown, the city's private companies have benefited from the low-cost means of reaching more customers. "Chengdu is considered a model e-commerce city for several reasons: It has a rapidly growing economy that influences neighboring areas, a strong industrial base, a sound environment for e-commerce development, a complete e-commerce support system, an improved logistics distribution system, and technology and talent support services," Peng said.

With large companies such as JD.com, China's second-biggest business-to-customer e-commerce company, moving divisions into Chengdu, and the city's e-commerce foundation projects concentrating in six industrial parks, Chengdu aims to generate up to 600 billion yuan ($96 billion) worth of business transactions on its e-commerce platforms by 2015, taking more than 10 percent of the city's total retail sales of consumer goods.

As e-commerce has proven itself to be a new powerhouse for the nation's economic growth, Xu Zhen, secretary-general of Chengdu's E-commerce Association, said it will continue to expand online commerce over the coming years with a focus on such key areas as cross-border trade, retail, online sales of Sichuan agricultural products and the service sector.

Milanoo.com, a Chengdu-based fashion website selling dresses, shoes, handbags and jewelry in 170 countries and regions, is one of many companies that reflect this trend. It plans to expand its multilingual customer service center overseas as international orders pour in, a company official said.

The company will enlarge its current customer service center in India and establish a new one in Moscow for the Russian market. It also will open its first overseas showroom this year in Paris.