Shanghai Customs has vigorously advanced a new digital reform model for customs supervision of cross-border e-commerce, delivering a secure and convenient new experience of "seamless customs clearance" for domestic consumers purchasing high-quality global goods.

As a key channel for cross-border e-commerce imports in Shanghai, the Bonded Logistics Center (Type B) of Hongqiao Business District (hereinafter referred to as Hongqiao BLC) recorded 14.868 million cross-border e-commerce import orders in 2025, accounting for over 60% of Shanghai’s total volume, representing a year-on-year increase of more than 20%. The sustained surge in business volume, coupled with consumers’ higher expectations for "same-hour delivery" services offered by e-commerce firms, has put the traditional cross-border e-commerce supervision model to new tests: how to further raise customs clearance efficiency while guaranteeing full regulatory oversight has become a practical challenge to be addressed.

The reform opportunity arose from the launch and operation of the national-level Shipping Trade Chain blockchain network. Taking e-commerce platforms including JD International as pilots, Shanghai Customs introduced blockchain technology into cross-border e-commerce supervision, building a multi-chain collaborative framework integrating the enterprise order chain, logistics supply chain, customs supervision chain and Shipping Trade Chain. It connects 11 categories of data including enterprise procurement, warehousing, logistics and payment onto the blockchain platform.

On this basis, intelligent models deployed on the customs backend conduct cross-verification of the authenticity and compliance of orders, forming a closed-loop supervision system featuring pre-event risk early warning, real-time non-intrusive intelligent verification during clearance, and full-track post-event traceability. The core transformation brought by the new model lies in smarter, more targeted supervision, minimizing disruptions to enterprises’ daily operational workflows.

Cui Zijing, Head of Import Customs Affairs at pilot enterprise JD International, said: "From January to May 2026, we completed cross-border e-commerce import orders worth RMB 1.68 billion at Hongqiao BLC, up over 8.9% year-on-year. We actively participated in the customs digital reform pilot for cross-border e-commerce, trading data for greater convenience, and our overall logistics and delivery efficiency has risen by 16.1% compared with the pre-pilot period."

Mo Haowen, Deputy Chief of the Logistics Supervision Section of Xinzhuang Customs, the supervising customs authority of Hongqiao BLC, stated: "During digital supervision, we also identified five types of irregularities such as inconsistent commodity name declarations and questionable payment timestamps. We promptly notified and guided enterprises to rectify these issues, helping them lift their compliance standards."

Building on previous explorations, Shanghai Customs is promoting the replication of relevant concepts and models across all customs authorities in the Yangtze River Delta, selecting customs districts and enterprises with adequate conditions and willingness to jointly participate in the reform pilot.

Source: Shanghai Customs