Using Free Trade Zones to Sell Online in China

Selling online in China is a great opportunity to get a foothold in the Chinese e-commerce market. Over the past years a number of pilot Free Trade Zones (FTZs) have opened up to facilitate the need for Chinese to buy reliable foreign products. Shanghai Free Trade Zone (FTZ) in 2013 and other 3 FTZs authorised in 2015 are the places where China is experimenting its reforms. Cross-border E-Commerce operations through the FTZs have boosted the access of Chinese consumers to EU products across almost all categories.

Join this webinar to find out how to use Free Trade Zones to sell your products online in China, optimise your logistics and operations to benefit from the changing rules. It will also discuss relatively new Cross-border E-Commerce Pilot Zones and provide insights into the exciting sales channels opening up for your products.

After attending the webinar you will:

• Gain an understanding of the FTZs in different regions of China;
• Know what will happen with your goods after it arrives in a bonded warehouse;
• Understand payment, post-sales and return procedures;
• Distinguish if inspection is the same with regular Customs channels;
• Get to know the expectations for the future

About the Speaker

Simon de Raadt, General Manager at Mains International / Co Founder at DigiDutch

Simon de Raadt is the General Manager of Mains International and co-founder of DigiDutch. His first visit to China was in 2007 and has been living and working in China for about 5 years. Over the past four years he has developed the outbound and inbound logistics for PostNL (Netherlands official Post). Besides he has helped commercial companies and brands like Ahold and Miffy with their inbound cross-border logistics needs using bonded and non-bonded warehousing.

Bjorn van der Veen, Managing Director Arctic Solutions / Co-Founder at DigiDutch

Bjorn van der Veen has over 15 years of experience in e-commerce for large multinationals like Philips and on the agency side for companies like Tribal, Salesupply and Arctic Solutions. He currently manages Arctic Solutions who offer full service e-commerce solutions for the temperature controlled products such as food and food supplements. Bjorn has been working in China for 9 years and has firm grasp of the opportunities and challenges for cross border e-commerce in China.

You can find the recorded video on Youtube:

Update information on the numbers and locations of Free Trade Zones and pilot cross-border e-commerce areas in China (for slide 8): Besides the original 4 Free Trade Zones (Shanghai, Tianjin, Fujian Province, Guangdong Province), the State Council approved setting up pilot areas for cross-border e-commerce to explore new business models in China on Jan 15th, 2016. The new pilot areas will be located in 12 cities, including Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing, Zhengzhou, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Dalian, Ningbo, Qingdao, Shenzhen, Suzhou.