Stage I (2003-2015) of China's rural e-commerce involved exploring various development paths. In 2005, the No. 1 Central Document released by the Chinese government outlining its major policy goals for the year mentioned e-commerce for the first time, and the country began to embark on a rural e-commerce development journey, which was mostly powered by establishing logistics networks, diversifying trade methods, and creating e-commerce platforms in its first 10 years. For example, the 2012 No. 1 Central Document called for efforts to make full use of modern information technology in order to power the development of modern trade methods, such as agricultural product e-commerce. The 2014 No. 1 Central Document indicated that projects designed to improve logistics facilities and equip farm produce wholesale markets with information technology would be launched and indicated that the creation and development of e-commerce platforms focused on agricultural products should be strengthened.

Driven by policies and the market, China's rural e-commerce has evolved through a start-up period (2003-2005), small-scale growth period (2006-2009), and rapid development period (2010-2014). The E-commerce Development Outline Corresponding with the 13th Five-year Plan (whose period runs from 2016-2020) draft, which was released in 2015, stated that China should actively develop rural e-commerce, implement comprehensive demonstration projects in which e-commerce is introduced to rural areas, and promote targeted poverty alleviation through e-commerce development and noted that online rural retail sales reached RMB353 billion that year. 

Stage II (2016-2020) involved realising specialised and large-scale rural e-commerce operations. During this period, China intensified rural e-commerce development efforts, gradually stipulated higher requirements, and defined and clarified major rural e-commerce development tasks, namely enhancing logistics infrastructure and improving three-tier logistics systems spanning the county, township, and village levels; carrying out comprehensive e-commerce demonstration projects in rural areas; improving rural e-commerce service systems; and supporting the creation of e-commerce platforms related to agriculture and the development of new business models.

Rural e-commerce has achieved remarkable results improving distribution of agricultural products, promoting the digital transformation and upgrade of agriculture, creating jobs, encouraging entrepreneurship, increasing farmers' incomes, and improving the rural environment since 2016. Leveraging rural e-commerce has promoted poverty alleviation, rural vitalisation, and the creation and development of digital villages, which are villages that participate in a campaign to modernise themselves, narrow the urban-rural divide, and create a robust agricultural sector in China by the year 2050 by pursuing endeavours that take advantage of broadband internet, 5G, and other modern information technologies. Commerce records indicate that the country's rural online retail sales reached RMB1.79 trillion in 2020, which is 5.1 times as much as what was logged in 2015 and well above the overall national e-commerce growth rate.

Stage III (2021 onwards) entails achieving high-quality rural e-commerce development by boosting agriculture through e-commerce. The E-commerce Development Outline Corresponding with the 14th Five-Year Plan, which was issued in 2021 and covers the period spanning until 2025, highlights the integration of e-commerce with primary, secondary, and tertiary industries and proposes promoting the vitalisation of rural industries and the creation and development of digital villages, vigorously implementing the "boosting agriculture through e-commerce" project, and improving rural e-commerce ecosystems. The 2022 No. 1 Central Document further clarified how the "boosting agriculture through e-commerce" project, which consists of measures designed to promote the development of rural e-commerce and gives the endeavour new direction, should be implemented.

Author: Ouyang Rihui, vice president of the China Center for Internet Economy Research, Central University of Finance and Economics