Hong Kong, 3 October 2018 – Cross-border ecommerce is blooming with great potential for growth. AliResearch*, a subsidiary of Alibaba, has estimated in a report that the size of Mainland China’s cross-border ecommerce transactions will reach RMB 12 trillion in 2020 (with a compound annual growth rate of as high as 20.1%). Qupital, Hong Kong’s leading supply chain finance platform, announced today its entrance to the cross-border ecommerce market. Its new system is now officially in operation, providing suppliers across leading e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, eBay, TMall, Koala and JD.com with quick and quality supply chain finance services. Qupital is using big data, platform integration, innovative risk management models and more to make cross-border ecommerce finance more efficient and precise.
Cross-border ecommerce is a type of international commercial activity. It refers to a situation where a consumer and a seller are in different places, and they complete transactions as well as logistics and other procedures through networks (government websites, ecommerce platforms and so on).
Qupital’s new service strengthens cooperation with ecommerce and logistics service companies
Qupital has created its international finance service with a focus on cross-border ecommerce. A simple and one-step registration leads users to a system that can be managed completely online. Qupital’s platform also simplifies the processes for loans and advances and can finance loan amount up to HK$40 million. This will significantly increase funding liquidity in cross-border ecommerce and maximize business opportunities, for example, sales on the coming Singles’ Day, as well as during peak shopping seasons.
Cross-border ecommerce merchants can choose to provide Qupital with their performance figures – such as business performance data, cargo value, the speed of sales and more – to be used as the basis of an assessment. The information can originate from three kinds of sources, including ecommerce platforms (such as Tmall), payment channels (such as Alipay) and logistic services (such as Cainiao). Base on the provided information, Qupital can have a better understanding of the business performance of the merchants, thus, be able to make more accurate risk assessments and shorten approval times, making the whole process more secure and transparent.
New service targets a gap in the market
Cross-border ecommerce remains a relatively new concept in Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese markets. The cross-border ecommerce companies mostly have short experience in their ecommerce business and do not have enough mortgage assets. In addition, the traditional financial institutions are not familiar with the ecommerce model. As a result, there has not been enough financing support in the market.
For an application, all that Qupital required from a cross-border ecommerce company are that they have a company registration in Hong Kong, a Hong Kong bank account, more than 12 months operations of a continuous basis and an annual turnover of HK$2 million or up.
“As a rapidly growing start-up company, Qupital is very excited to collaborate with the large-scale Mainland logistics firm Cainiao and to connect with cross-border ecommerce platforms such as Tmall, following our recent collaboration with Alibaba.com.” said Mr. Tang Kwan-yung, the Manager of Qupital Cross-border ecommerce service, “Besides, showing that Qupital has received recognition and support from the industry, this expands the target customer base from Hong Kong’s SMEs to cross-border ecommerce companies, which have great potential. The cooperative new service helps Qupital develop its business in Hong Kong and Mainland strategically. We believe that with this new collaboration, the Qupital’s gross merchandize volume (GMV) will continue to increase by over 20% monthly. With the new customer base, we expect to reach a turnover of HK$800 million and with over 100 company clients in the fourth quarter of 2018.”
New service performs brilliantly
Qupital and Cainiao’s partnership has already put to test in mid-2018. Qupital has already financed multiple ecommerce clients, including a cross-border online cosmetics company established seven years ago, and a company trading in designers watches. After the official launch of the partnership, the potential client base through this channel will increase to over 1,000. The number of clients is expected to increase to over 100 in the coming 12 to 18 months, with financing volumes of up to HK$1.5 billion.
Qupital has already provided over HK$1 billion supply chain finance to SMEs across the greater China area, with more than 5,000 transactions. Qupital will continue to provide supply chain finance services and develop new products to provide the market with more advance financing options.
