China's rural e-commerce has developed rapidly in recent years and become an important channel facilitating the sale and distribution of agricultural products to customers located outside of the areas they are produced in and rural areas in general, and, conversely, enabled various products to make their way to rural dwellers. It plays an important role in helping farmers coping with difficulties in purchasing goods and increasing their incomes and contributes to rural vitalisation and industrial development in the countryside. Many problems of great concern also exist, however, such asuneven quality of e-commerce products, shortages of standardised services and e-commerce professionals, weak and underdeveloped brands, prominent logistics and supply chain issues, and insufficient policy coordination. With a focus on promoting rural vitalisation and prosperity for all, it is recommended that the following measures are taken in order to promote the healthy development of rural e-commerce:
First, understanding of the strategic value of rural e-commerce should continue to be promoted and enhanced. Rural e-commerce is a new channel that helps farmers sell their agricultural products and meet their consumption needs. Rural e-commerce is an important way for e-commerce companies to expand the e-commerce market and participate in public welfare. Rural e-commerce functions as a new mode of rural vitalisation and new rural industrial development ecosystem for the government. Rural e-commerce will, to a certain extent, affect the allocation of production factors such as land, capital, personnel, technology, and data. It has become an important part of the new productivity that is occurring in rural areas, triggering a series of industrial changes and scenario innovations. E-commerce plays a key role in promoting rural vitalisation and achieving common prosperity. The important strategic value of rural e-commerce deserves to be further explored in the future.
Second, the capacity to transform agricultural products into products that are suitable for e-commerce and ensure supply chain security should be enhanced. Products that are sold online must be standardised and upgraded rapidly and meet netizens' consumption demands, yet this may not always occur in rural areas and thus result in weak links in their e-commerce industry chains. Agricultural products, especially local speciality products, have a long production cycle and limited output. Once they become popular, it can be difficult to meet increasing demand in time. Agricultural products are also less standardised and cannot be updated in a short period of time. Targeted measures should be taken in order to improve capacity to turn "farm products" into "e-commerce products" in Aurural areas, and selection, sorting, packaging, brand sales point planning, and agricultural product supply chains should be systematically improved in order to address shortcomings in e-commerce infrastructure.
Third, other efforts should also be made to address shortcomings related to rural e-commerce. Improving logistics is a primary aspect of developing rural e-commerce. The development of express logistics and e-commerce service stations have addressed difficulties associated with the "last-mile of delivery," thereby facilitating the downward movement of industrial products into villages. It is necessary to weigh long-term costs and benefits. It is important to take advantage of the internet in order to scale up dispersed demand and drive the formation of market-oriented systems with regard to rural people's requirements with regard to both the sale of their agricultural products and their consumption of other products when the government reduces subsidies. At the same time, problems associated with the "first mile of delivery" as agricultural products make their way from villages to urban areas also need to be solved.
It is necessary for the government and the market to continue to invest in the construction of supporting facilities that meet the higher requirements associated with cold chain logistics, sorting, primary processing, packaging, and other links. It is important to continue to improve the supply of rural e-commerce professionals, adopt a combination of public welfare training and market value-added training, and utilise entrepreneurship incubation as important means of enhancing the comprehensive capabilities of rural e-commerce talent in terms of product development and production, marketing, logistics, brand building, and other aspects. It is necessary to innovate financial service methods, considering that rural e-commerce enterprises tend to be small-scale, have limited fixed assets, and low credit ratings. E-commerce transaction data should be incorporated into financing decisions, and platform enterprises should be encouraged to develop new rural e-commerce financial services products.
Fourth, rural e-commerce synergy between the government and the market should be enhanced and further leveraged. Relevant departments have invested heavily in the establishment of rural e-commerce public service systems for a long while, effectively addressing many bottlenecks that had been restricting rural e-commerce development. Many platform enterprises have also established a presence in the rural e-commerce market. They have built bases and warehouses, developed featured products, and created good-quality rural e-commerce service ecosystems. Public rural e-commerce service resources should be organically integrated with e-commerce enterprises' operations and service systems in order to put existing resources to good use and make public service operations more sustainable. It is also necessary to synergistically leverage the regulatory power of the government and the ability of platform enterprises to influence markets in order to help address prominent problems that have come to light in rural e-commerce and enhance standardisation of the rural e-commerce market.
Author: Li Mingtao, chief e-commerce expert of China International Electronic Commerce Center
