The “bonded import + offline pick up” is not allowed in China. The only exception is the Hainan Free Trade Port – China’s largest duty free area – which allows consumers across China to purchase duty-free goods on official platforms and to collect them in person in duty-free shops within the territory of Hainan island.

“Bonded import + offline pick up” refers to a model through which certain e-commerce enterprises are allowed to open an experience store to exhibit and sell their products, usually within a customs special supervision area. Once consumers finish the whole series of online purchasing procedure, they are able to pick up the product on site or use domestic delivery services.

Previously, there used to be some experience stores outside customs special supervision areas, usually located downtown and specifically in Central Business Districts due to their vicinity to consumers. In these cases, however, the customs were experiencing difficulties in preventing relevant CBEC enterprises or platforms to use this model as a trick to evade taxes, by replacing CBEC retail imports with goods imported through general trade.