Buying online from overseas vendors is no longer such a foreign idea anymore, and many investors are now betting on a growing trend, valued at some 1 trillion yuan worth of purchases last year.Online shopping giants like Alibaba Group's Tmall International and JD.com Inc. opened the floodgates in 2014 to purchasing goods from overseas vendors.Back in 2010, an e-commerce company named Yangmatou began attracting investment with its focus on letting Chinese buyers liaise directly with overseas sellers.The site offers a range of foreign-branded products from Spanish olive oil to U.S.-made vitamin supplements.In 2013, the central government introduced a pilot programwhich offered tax breaks for cross-border e-commerce companies and lower tariffs plus shorter customs processing times for goods bought through them.Foreign companies are also getting in on the convenience of overseas online purchases, with Amazon.com partnering with Tmall International in April.Smaller companies are gaining momentum in the market, creating their own international supply chains.Yangmatou offers a platform which is connected to its own logistics centers in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Houston.For Caixin Online, this is Diana Bates.
