Report names China's top three retail export hubs

Guangdong, Hong Kong and Shanghai ranked as the top three retail export hubs in China, according to a report from eBay Inc, a leading global commerce platform, released on Wednesday.

The report titled 2013 Greater China Retail Export Industry Landscape looked into cross-border trade by regions and categories.

[Photo / chinadaily.com.cn]

Rounding out the top eight e-retail export hubs were Zhejiang, Beijing, Taiwan, Jiangsu and Fujian.

The report was based on internal eBay data, as well as data compiled from an online survey conducted by Ipsos, a global market-research company, on behalf of eBay.

China's coastal regions continue to lead the growth in e-retail export with Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangsu enjoying the fastest year-on-year growth -- 76.1 percent, 56.1 percent and 52 percent, respectively.

At the same time, inland regions continue to gain market presence because some costal sellers have begun to move their operation headquarters. An increasing number of eBay sellers are emerging from inland provinces Hubei, Hebei and Henan. In Hubei, eBay sales increased 50 percent year-on-year from June 30, 2012.

Argentina, Israel and Brazil are the fastest growing markets for China's sellers. In large part because of breakthrough logistics solutions and big-data technologies, they are expanding into new categories such as home and garden, and parts and accessories.

According to eBay's internal data, the three largest categories by gross volume for Chinese sellers in the 12 months from July 2012 were electronics, fashion and home and garden.

Meanwhile, computers, cellphones, accessories, clothing, jewelry, gems and watches were the most popular items. Home and garden, fashion and parts and accessories were the three fastest growing categories.

[Photo / chinadaily.com.cn]

With government incentive policies and global consumers' growing demand for online cross-border shopping, the Chinese retail export industry will continue to enjoy substantial growth momentum. The survey showed that more than 52 percent of the 841 respondents are optimistic about the business prospects of the Chinese retail export industry for the next 12 months.

The majority of China's sellers plan to scale up their businesses, the survey found, with plans to hire on average of eight additional full-time employees in the next 12 months. More than 68 percent of sellers are planning to expand offerings in their current category lineup, while 64 percent are looking to expand into other categories.