Visa published Chinese cross-border consumption index annual report (2015)

After in-depth research of cross-border tourism, e-commerce, overseas study of cross-border consumer, the "report" think, under the push of government, Chinese cross-border consumption will enter a "bonus" period of leap-forward development, especially in cross-border e-commerce which is expected to double over the next three years.

According to the Chinese consumers "cross-border online shopping frequency index", in the ten samples of countries/regions which were continuous researched by this report, the United States is still the biggest importer of China’s cross-border online shopping. In 2014, the Chinese consumers cross-border online shopping frequency index of the United States reached 1854, which means that the number of Chinese online shopping users in the United States is about 18 times more than the average 10 sample countries/regions. Britain is the second largest target country of Chinese consumers cross-border shopping, and the trading frequency index is 433. Although the United States and Britain are still the most favorited countries of Chinese consumers cross-border online shopping, the trading frequency index in 2014 decreased than it in 2013. The Chinese overseas online shopping destination is becoming diversified.

In 2014, the third of China's netizens cross-border shopping target countries/regions changed from Hong Kong to Japan. Chinese citizen cross-border online trading frequency index of Japan in 2013 increase from 99 to 197. We can see the fast growth of the number of online shopping in Japan, this may be related to the recent trend of RMB appreciation against the yen. Chinese mainland residents cross-border shopping in Hong Kong trading frequency index is just 144 in 2014, has fallen dramatically compared with 2013.

For China, the United States is also China's most major cross-border shopping "exporters", Britain and Canada are the other two Chinese cross-border online sales target countries. The above countries’ e-commerce trading frequency index are higher may be because they have large number of overseas Chinese. The countries (regions) with fewer cross-border shopping frequency in the sample countries (regions) are South Korea, Germany and Hong Kong. Although they are all at a low level in absolute number, but the changing trends are different, South Korean online purchase is on a faster growth, but Hong Kong online purchase of Chinese mainland is in a relative rapid decline.

"Cross-border e-commerce trade intensity index" reflects the relative size of the single consumption amount between China and the target country/region. The report shows that Chinese residents, although the biggest cross-border shopping mall is the United States, in terms of the single consumption amount in 2014, the highest of the three are Australia, France and Britain.

In addition, the report also pointed out that China's cross-border e-commerce import and export markets have obvious seasonal characteristics. About the "Import", its peak appears at the end of the year, because of the United States’ Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping season; The most important "imported" commodity is education, the apparel has the highest growth rates and the second is the leisure products.

In regard to "Export", the trade size is bigger in the later months of the year. The export trade peak of Chinese cross-border e-commerce is October - December and this period is also coincides with the western Christmas, and department stores, supermarkets, clothing, stores, airlines and other export electrical business is more popular with foreign customers.

Fuzhou continues to hold the post of "the most attractive city" of the inbound tourism.  And the second to fifth cities are Quanzhou, Xiamen, Hangzhou and Suzhou.

Tourist foreign exchange income is still concentrated in some big cities, and has a further intensified trend. On the whole, compared with 2012, the top10 provinces of Tourist foreign exchange income is basically stable in 2013,and the top2 are still Tianjin and Beijing.

In the top 10 cities (not include Municipalities), Fuzhou has the highest travel time index, 136% higher than the national average.

The report also found that China's environmental problems are indeed influence factors to the development of inbound tourism market, through the research we can clearly see the better the nature environment is the more foreign tourist it will have.

In the outbound tourism shopping, the report said that while some consumption is still relatively limited in absolute numbers, but in 2014 it shows a tendency of rapid growth, which reflects the new direction of the market consumption trend. 2014 the category with the highest Chinese outbound tourism shopping expenditure growth is is pharmaceuticals shops, its expenditure is doubled.

The United States is the largest cross-border online shopping "import and export country" of China.

The report argues that under the push of the government, Chinese cross-border consumption will enter the "bonus" period of the leap-forward development, especially in cross-border e-commerce, over the next three years , it will achieve the goal of double growth.

Along with improvement of payment technology, the cross-border consumption will become more convenient, safe and less costly.

The report points out that in 2014, United States stands the largest cross-border online shopping country of China, for both import and export. In terms of the amount of a single cross-border online shopping transaction, Australia, France and UK are the top three countries to China mainland consumers, Japan, Hong Kong and Korea are the lowest three. While Hong Kong and Japan consumers made the highest online purchase amount of a single transaction to China.

According to the relevant report data, from January to May, China's net export fell 7.8% on year-on-year basis, but cross-border e-commerce net export grew over 30%. Shirley, the general manager of Visa China region said: "We can expect that cross-border e-commerce to become an important engine of China's foreign trade growth in the future."

Zhang Li, the deputy director of e-commerce research institute of the ministry of commerce, said, the growth rate of cross-border e-commerce will remain around 25% in the next five years. A regulated e-payment method will make it safer.

Study abroad: Australia is the most expensive, while United States, UK and Canada are more popular.

Compared with the report of last year, this time it covered the data and analysis of oversea study consumption, including the consumption scale in the study country, third countries and the current situation of related oversea tourism. Also established the quantitative analysis method and index system.

The report pointed out that in the oversea study destinations, Chinese students in Australia had the highest annual per capita consumption, being 121% of spending in United States. While Hong Kong has the lowest spending, only 48% of US. It is the first quantitative analysis on the consumption of Chinese oversea students that conducted by domestic researching institute.

According to the report, United States, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand ranks top five of Chinese students oversea study destinations.

Shanghai, Beijing are the top two of "the most attractive cities”

The report found that, among the 10 provinces that have the largest foreign exchange income, Tianjin remains the city with highest inbound travel time index, which is 15.6 in 2013, significantly higher than other provinces and cities. The following are Fujian province, Beijing and Jiangsu province. Shanghai earned the highest index of inbound tourists per unit time consumption, which is 139, 39% higher than national average, followed by Beijing. It’s about 259 yuan per day for overnight visitors in Shanghai. The report argues that this may due to higher price level and more developed e-payment environment in Beijing and Shanghai.

Chinese citizens oversea tourism shopping:  medicine consumption grew most

The report shows that some consumption is still limited in absolute amount, but growing fast in 2014, showing the new direction of the market tendency. The merchant category that has the highest growth rate of consumption for Chinese travelers are pharmacy and drug stores, with spending amount doubled. Followed by the electronics shops, department stores, supermarkets and grocery stores, sales grew fifty to one hundred percent. This may due to a series of trade agreement that China signed with other countries/regions. Health care spending grew nearly fifty percent, showing domestic need of China for healthcare services.

The report pointed out that since January 2013, airports in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu start to implement 72 hours transit visa-free policy for overseas tourists. But data shows, the consumption growth of travelers from transit visa-free countries has no significant difference with those from other countries. Moreover, considering the time window between the effect and the release of the policy and the situation since the second half of 2014, the report found that the consumption from other countries grew fast, while that from transit visa-free countries showed no similar growth.

As economy developing, many China regions are facing increasing environmental problems. Poor air quality will inevitably impact on the development of tourism. According to a study of the report, there is relevance between the air quality and the growth of tourism foreign exchange income. Higher air quality usually comes with higher tourist foreign exchange income. Therefore, from the perspective of the tourism development, environmental protection can not only benefit the residence, but also turn into considerable economic profit.