Sales representatives rehearse for tonight's livestreaming in Yiwu. [Photo/zgyww.cn]

Yiwu, East China's Zhejiang province, home to the world's largest small commodity wholesale market, is fully prepared for the annual "618 mid-year shopping festival", which falls on June 18 every year, local media reported on June 17.

The Yiwu Bonded Logistics Center is cooperating with cross-border e-commerce platforms such as T-mall Global and NetEase Kaola and plans to begin offering customers better discounts. Data from Yiwu Customs shows that from Jan to May, it has inspected 6.87 million imported packages with a value of 1.14 billion yuan ($160.8 million) meant for retail.

The manager of the T-mall Global Yiwu Bonded Warehouse said that they are confident in their cooperation with Landport Group Co and in their own global parcel tracking platform (Cainiao Global) and supply chains, which will enable them to deliver internationally.

The 618 shopping festival was created by JD. Yiwu-based Yida Supply Chain Management Co will be responsible for the shipment of packages for e-commerce platforms such as NetEase Kaola, Pinduoduo, and Xiaohongshu.

"The company started stocking products in early June. We have purchased hundreds of thousands of products, including makeup, maternal and childcare products, and healthcare products from South Korea and Japan. We expect to receive around 120,000 orders during 618, which is several times more than the usual amount," said a spokesperson for Yida.

Cross-border e-commerce is facing difficulties as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, including a lack of goods and insufficient cash flow. 

Since resuming work, the Yiwu Bonded Logistics Center has made strong efforts to safeguard against the spread of COVID-19.

In addition, Yiwu Customs is optimizing supervision and implementing 24/7 customs clearance services. Priority is being given to orders and other urgent matters that require manual review. Special groups are even being sent to work overtime to process packages.