According to Chinese customs statistics, China’s cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 419.5 billion yuan ($65.57 billion) in the first quarter of this year, up 46.5 percent year-on-year.

Last year, China’s cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 1.69 trillion yuan ($264.17 billion), up 31.1 percent over 2019.

Some Chinese cross-border e-commerce companies are attracting the attention of investors. This week, Wook, a company specialising in selling to Southeast Asia, completed a Series C round of 100 million yuan ($15.63 million) in fresh financing.

At the same time, some enterprises that have ridden the boom in cross-border from China to the rest of the world are encountering some challenges to go along with their higher profile.

Shein, a Chinese e-commerce giant with $10 billion in sales last year, has recently faced complaints from fashion brands, including Dr Martens, alleging intellectual property rights violations.

Incoming cross-border e-commerce in China has similarly boomed with consumers wishing to access more international brands from home as international travel, and its accompanying shopping sprees, have come to a halt. According to estimates from iiMedia Research, 211 million people in China used cross-border platforms in 2020.