Let the development dividend of e-commerce better benefit the rural areas

The extension of online shopping festivals such as "double 11" to rural areas and farmers should not only focus on stimulating rural consumption capacity, but also on the export of rural agricultural products, so that two-way, mutually beneficial, and balanced urban and rural e-commerce circulation channels can better benefit rural areas and farmers.

Whether you accept such a man-made online shopping carnival, Singles Day, which only sprang up five or six years ago, it sets off a shopping spree on the Internet with great attraction every year. Data show that the transaction volume of e-commerce platform "Alibaba" in "double 11" in 2009 was 50 million yuan, but in 2014, just five years later, the figure became 57.1 billion yuan. It's a complete carnival for both consumers and e-commerce. This is a sign of the vigorous development and prosperity of China's e-commerce and network sales platform, and it is also an important force in stimulating the growth of China's domestic demand, which is worth affirming.

However, in such a hot shopping carnival, a large number of farmers are in the position of "absence". According to "Alibaba" statistics, during the "double 11" period last year, the rural transaction volume accounted for only 10%, which shows that in the "double 11" consumer transactions, farmers account for a very low proportion. This is not only farmers are not used to online shopping consumption, but also rural telecommunications network software and hardware facilities are not complete, farmers will not use "online banking" and other factors. With the advent of this year's "double 11", the major e-commerce sales platforms are rubbing their hands and turning their attention to the potential market that remains to be developed in rural areas. For example, the "thousands of counties and ten thousand villages" plan implemented by "Alibaba" has formed a scale covering more than 6000 villages in 27 provinces in more than a year; for example, the "JD.com Mall" has also added more than 1000 county-level "JD.com gang" service stations and 700 "county-level service centers", including 100000 rural promoters. According to the statistics of the China Internet Information Center, as of December 2014, the number of online shopping users in rural areas was 77.14 million, with an annual growth rate of 40.6 percent. From the major e-commerce have sunk the focus of rural measures and relevant statistics to analyze, this year's "double 11" period, rural online shopping transaction volume may rise sharply.

Allowing farmers to participate in the "double 11" is to enable farmers to enjoy convenient e-commerce, logistics and other service systems, so that farmers and urban citizens are on the same platform and share the life changes brought about by the development of e-commerce. It is a useful exploration for the change of farmers' consumption concept and the stimulation of rural consumption power, which is worth affirming.

However, from a longer-term development point of view, the participation of rural areas and farmers in "double 11" and even the whole e-commerce can not be limited to the consumer side. Between rural areas and cities, through e-commerce and logistics channels, a two-way circulation channel of "industrial products to the countryside" and "agricultural products to the city" should be established, which is a process of "walking on two legs". However, 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 them still aim to stimulate the consumption potential of rural areas and farmers. more one-way channels for "industrial products to the countryside" have been established, while the channel role of "agricultural products into cities" has not been brought into full play. According to the online shopping categories of urban and rural residents during the "double 11" period in 2014, according to Alibaba statistics, most of the online shopping of rural residents are items such as mobile phones, tablet computers, clothing, washing machines and so on, which shows that the channels for "industrial products to the countryside" are smooth. Urban residential online shopping is also very similar, which means that agricultural and sideline products have not been able to flow to the city with the help of "double 11". This shows that rural areas and farmers have been in a state of "trade deficit" in the process of participating in "double 11". A healthy sales logistics channel should be a two-way flow between urban and rural areas to achieve a general balance according to their respective industrial proportions. Obviously, in terms of the current participation of rural areas and farmers in "double 11", it is far from reaching this ideal state.

Only when the "double 11" is allowed to drive the flow of agricultural products to the city, can we truly realize the inclusive urban and rural areas with the development dividend of e-commerce. Of course, we do not rule out the possibility that some rural areas with relatively mature rural e-commerce have indeed tasted the benefits during the "double 11" period. For example, the "thousand-layer quilt" played mainly by farmers in Wusu City in Xinjiang and the "Qingyuan Chicken" played mainly by farmers in Yangshan County, Qingyuan City, Guangdong Province, and so on, there was a sharp increase in sales during the "double 11" period last year, even in short supply. This also shows that as long as rural areas make good use of e-commerce channels, they can get a piece of the online shopping carnival such as "double 11".

In order to really build a balanced two-way circulation channel between urban and rural areas and realize that the dividends of e-commerce development will benefit rural areas and farmers, we also need the joint efforts of the government, social forces and farmers themselves. the infrastructure construction of rural e-commerce development, the training of farmers' information level and the policy and financial support of rural logistics system all need to be strengthened and improved by the government. From the perspective of society, especially the large e-commerce platform, while expanding the sales channels of "industrial products to the countryside", we should pay more attention to the promotion of agricultural and sideline products in cities. From a long-term point of view, balanced commodity convection between urban and rural areas is more conducive to the long-term development of e-commerce platform. From the farmers' point of view, farmers should actively change their business concepts and follow the idea of e-commerce sales. While ensuring the quality of excellent agricultural products, they should also think more about new ideas and services suitable for network channels, so as to make their products more suitable for e-commerce sales. Recently, the State Council issued the guidance 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 a word, the extension of online shopping festivals such as "double 11" to rural areas and farmers should not only focus on stimulating rural consumption capacity, but also on the export of rural agricultural products, so that two-way, mutually beneficial and balanced urban and rural e-commerce circulation channels can better benefit rural areas and farmers.