The second day of the first EU Cross Border E-Commerce Forum was launched with a round table discussion with top players in the industry. At Liege Airport stage James Song from Alibaba explained to the audience eWTP project.  “Technology is inclusive and could promote cross-border economy. By the way, we are facing some challenges, and technology could be the right answer to solve these challenges”, said Song. Last year Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba inked an agreement with Belgium to open its first Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) in Europe with the aim of promoting long-term cross-border trade.

“Inclusive economy and inclusive finance: this is the aim of eWTP, this project is not only about Alibaba or Cainiao, is about people, is how to create a new kind of environment so we need let people better understand how to increase their knowledge about hi-tech. Let technology being cheaper and affordable for people, this also the goal for eWTP” added Song. 

Anastasia Kovaleva of Vivatao stated that Russian consumers and consumers worldwide were more likely to purchase a product online if the brand has a physical presence in the country, stressing the importance of e-commerce product experience. Moreover “Russia is becoming day by day on the most important market for Chinese goods and this trend will continue in the future”. 

Ma Zili, Xiamen Free Trade Zone, and Chen Weijing, Hangzhou Cross-Border Association, both have given to the audience the Chinese authorities perspective about cross-border e-commerce and Silk Road 2.0. Mr. Ma has shown how Xiamen FTZ is recently becoming one of the most dynamic cluster in China, while Mss. Chen pointed out how Hangzhou is strongly supporting cross-border e-commerce industry.

What about Europe? Cdiscount, with Leila Fan, brought on the stage its experience as one of the main abbansador for Chinese brands in France, while Kuan Huang from Real.de said “how german e-commerce is growing slowly”. Can we say that in Germany e-commerce is still something new? More or less. How pointed out by Kuan Huang, “german consumer behavior is, somehow, really traditional and one of the main challenge is let them open the door to e-commerce. There is great potential and the whole sector is becoming year by year bigger”. 

Last up, conference attendees listened to remarks of Aaron Yuan, Hongyuan Group, and Jan Van Roey, Landmark Global / Bpost, who shared key numbers about logistics developments trend. Another two topics of note was how to be an effective marketer in China and BRI. Once again Tmall with Jennifer Wang, has shown the impressive numbers of last Singles’ Day, while Martin Gross – Albehnaussen of German E-commerce Association Bevh, stated that “BRI is challenging the classical way of think of what retailer is doing. It changes e-commerce as well, but we need a lot of training and education about it”. Gross – Albehnaussen  concluded how BRI “could be a great opportunity for everybody”.