Ministry of Commerce: From January to September, the momentum for e-commerce development in China continued to innovate, with online retail supporting consumption growth.

Recently, an official from the E-Commerce Department of the Ministry of Commerce introduced China's e-commerce development from January to September 2026. From January to September 2026, the momentum for e-commerce development in China continued to innovate, with online retail supporting consumption growth, and international cooperation deepening and becoming more substantive, helping to enhance the resilience and vitality of China's economic development. Development momentum has become more innovation-oriented. The "Five Excellences" initiative for quality e-commerce was implemented, guiding the e-commerce industry to transition from scale expansion to quality improvement. E-commerce platforms accelerated independent research and development in cloud services, large models, and computing power chips. The performance level, monthly active users, and token invocation volume of large models rose to the forefront globally, making them an important new force in China's artificial intelligence development. The digital and intelligent empowerment of e-commerce is enabling agriculture, industry, and services. The full text is as follows: An official from the E-Commerce Department of the Ministry of Commerce introduces China's e-commerce development from January to September 2026 From January to September 2026, the momentum for e-commerce development in China continued to innovate, with online retail supporting consumption growth, and international cooperation deepening and becoming more substantive, helping to enhance the resilience and vitality of China's economic development. Development momentum has become more innovation-oriented. The "Five Excellences" initiative for quality e-commerce was implemented, guiding the e-commerce industry to transition from scale expansion to quality improvement. E-commerce platforms accelerated independent research and development in cloud services, large models, and computing power chips. The performance level, monthly active users, and token invocation volume of large models rose to the forefront globally, making them an important new force in China's artificial intelligence development. The digital and intelligent empowerment of e-commerce is enabling agriculture, industry, and services. From January to September, according to Ministry of Commerce big data monitoring, the online retail sales of Shenzhen Agricultural Power Group increased by 12.6%, and the online retail sales of the Tianjin carpet and Jiangxi porcelain industrial belts increased by 26.3% and 25.9%, respectively; according to National Bureau of Statistics data, the value added of information transmission, software, and information technology services grew by 10.4%. The role in driving consumption has become more robust. According to National Bureau of Statistics data, from January to September, national online retail sales of goods and services grew by 4.4%. According to Ministry of Commerce estimates, this contributed 45.4% to the growth of total retail sales of consumer goods and services. The role of online channels in driving offline sales has strengthened. According to National Bureau of Statistics data, goods retail sales realized via the internet by units above the designated size accounted for 31.8%, up 3.9 percentage points from the same period last year. Online service retail sales grew relatively fast. According to Ministry of Commerce big data monitoring, online travel, online lifestyle services, and online catering grew by 25.7%, 13.9%, and 12.2%, respectively. International cooperation has become more in-depth. The Fifth Global Digital Trade Expo was held, attracting 2,008 companies to exhibit and more than 50,000 professional buyers from 163 countries and regions to attend and procure. During the event, a series of "Silk Road E-commerce Day" activities were held, and more than 600 representatives from government, industry, academia, and research circles from more than 30 countries and international organizations conducted in-depth exchanges on policies, industries, and capacity building, building consensus on e-commerce development. The offline training sessions of the e-commerce seminar for developing countries and ASEAN trained trainees from 18 countries, and the Africa special session of the Cloud Lecture Hall attracted participation from 22 African countries. Cross-border e-commerce maintained relatively rapid growth. According to preliminary estimates by the General Administration of Customs, from January to September, China's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports grew by 4.4%. This article is excerpted from the official website of the "Ministry of Commerce" and edited by GMTEight's Jiang Yuanhua.