How Rural Areas Can Better Share in the Dividends of E-Commerce Development

The extension of online shopping festivals such as "Double 11" to rural areas and farmers should not focus only on stimulating rural consumption capacity, but should focus even more on the outward sale of rural agricultural products. Only such a two-way, mutually beneficial and balanced urban-rural e-commerce circulation channel can let the dividends of e-commerce development better benefit rural areas and farmers.

Whether you accept it or not, this artificially created online shopping carnival, "Double 11," which emerged only five or six years ago, stirs up a huge shopping "carnival" online every year with tremendous appeal. Data show that the transaction volume of the e-commerce platform "Alibaba" on "Double 11" in 2009 was 0.5 hundred million yuan, and just five years later, in 2014, this figure became 57.1 billion yuan. It can be seen that "Double 11," whether for consumers or for e-commerce companies, is an out-and-out "carnival." This is a sign of the vigorous and flourishing development of China's e-commerce and online sales platforms, and it is also an important force driving the growth of China's domestic demand. It deserves recognition.

However, in such a booming shopping carnival, a large number of farmers are in a position of "absence." According to "Alibaba" statistics, during last year's "Double 11," rural transaction volume accounted for only 10%, which shows that among the consumer transactions of "Double 11," farmers accounted for a very low proportion. This is due both to farmers' unfamiliarity with online shopping and to factors such as the incomplete telecommunications network software and hardware facilities in rural areas and farmers' inability to use "online banking." As this year's "Double 11" approaches, major e-commerce sales platforms are rubbing their hands and turning their eyes to rural areas, this potential market still awaiting development. For example, the "Thousand Counties and Ten Thousand Villages" plan implemented by "Alibaba" has, in just over a year, formed a scale covering more than 6,000 villages in 27 provinces; "JD.com" has also added more than 1,000 county-level "JD Help" service stations and 700 "county-level service centers," incorporating 100,000 rural promoters. According to statistics from the China Internet Network Information Center, as of December 2014, the scale of rural netizen online shopping users was 77.14 million, with an annual growth rate as high as 40.6%. Judging from the measures taken by major e-commerce companies to shift their focus downward to rural areas and from the relevant statistical data, during this year's "Double 11," rural online shopping transaction volume may rise sharply.

Getting farmers to participate in "Double 11" allows farmers to enjoy convenient e-commerce, logistics and other service systems, puts farmers and urban residents on the same platform, and lets them share in the life changes brought by e-commerce development. This is a beneficial exploration for changing farmers' consumption concepts and stimulating rural consumption capacity, and it deserves recognition.

However, from a longer-term development perspective, rural areas' and farmers' participation in "Double 11" and even in the entire e-commerce sector cannot be limited only to the consumption end. Between rural and urban areas, what should be established through e-commerce and logistics channels is a two-way circulation channel of "industrial products going to the countryside" and "agricultural products going to the city." This is a process of "walking on two legs." But judging from the current strategic layout of several major e-commerce platforms in rural areas and the actual situation of farmers' participation in "Double 11," most of it still aims to stimulate the consumption potential of rural areas and farmers, and more often establishes a one-way channel of "industrial products going to the countryside," while the channel role of "agricultural products going to the city" has in fact not been fully brought into play. Taking the categories of online shopping by urban and rural residents during the 2014 "Double 11" as counted by "Alibaba," rural residents mostly bought mobile phones, tablet computers, clothing, washing machines and other items online, which shows that the channel of "industrial products going to the countryside" is unobstructed, while the online purchases of urban residents are also very similar. This means that agricultural and sideline products were not able to flow to cities with the help of "Double 11." This shows that in the process of participating in "Double 11," rural areas and farmers have always been in a state of "trade deficit." A healthy sales and logistics channel should be one in which two-way flow between urban and rural areas roughly reaches balance according to their respective shares of industry. Obviously, as far as the current participation of rural areas and farmers in "Double 11" is concerned, this ideal state is still far from being reached.

Only when "Double 11" becomes a driver of agricultural products flowing to cities can the dividends of e-commerce development truly be shared inclusively by urban and rural areas. Of course, we do not rule out that some rural areas with relatively mature rural e-commerce development did indeed taste the sweetness during "Double 11." For example, the "thousand-layer cotton quilts" promoted mainly by farmers in Wusu city, Xinjiang, and the "Qingyuan chicken" promoted mainly by farmers in Yangshan county, Qingyuan city, Guangdong, all saw large increases in sales during last year's "Double 11," even to the point of demand exceeding supply. This also shows that as long as rural areas make good use of e-commerce channels, they can absolutely get a share of the pie in online shopping carnivals like "Double 11."

To truly build a balanced two-way circulation channel between urban and rural areas and realize e-commerce development dividends benefiting rural areas and farmers, the joint efforts of the government, social forces and farmers themselves are still needed. At the government level, infrastructure construction for rural e-commerce development, training for farmers in information technology, and policy and funding support for the rural logistics system all need to be strengthened and improved by the government; from the perspective of society, especially large e-commerce platforms, while expanding the sales channel of "industrial products going to the countryside," they should pay more attention to promoting agricultural and sideline products in cities. From a long-term perspective, balanced urban-rural commodity flow is more conducive to the long-term development of e-commerce platforms; from the perspective of farmers, farmers should actively change their business concepts and think more in line with the ideas of e-commerce sales. While ensuring the quality of excellent agricultural products, they should think more about new ideas and new services suitable for online channels, so that their products are better suited to e-commerce sales. Recently, the State Council issued the "Guiding Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Promoting the Accelerated Development of Rural E-Commerce," which also provides a policy environment for the accelerated development of rural e-commerce.

In summary, the extension of online shopping festivals such as "Double 11" to rural areas and farmers should not focus only on stimulating rural consumption capacity, but should focus even more on the outward sale of rural agricultural products. Only such a two-way, mutually beneficial and balanced urban-rural e-commerce circulation channel can let the dividends of e-commerce development better benefit rural areas and farmers.