Rural e-commerce accelerates in China

Just after 7 a.m., at a bus station in Jungar Banner, Ordos, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, driver Hou Leng of a local bus company efficiently loaded 102 express parcels into the luggage compartment of a bus before welcoming passengers aboard for the 60-kilometer journey to Buertaohai township.

Jungar Banner's vast territory encompasses 10 sparsely distributed towns and townships. Since 2024, it has pioneered an integrated passenger-cargo-postal model. Coordinated by the local transport bureau, China Post's Jungar branch has brought together seven private courier companies to handle deliveries to remote villages, sharing responsibilities between the bus company and postal stations across those towns and townships.

A bus driver unloads parcels in a village in China. (Photo/Wang Mingguo)

"The postal company builds shared distribution centers to store, sort and forward parcels bound for villages — deliveries that courier companies struggle to handle — while charging service fees accordingly. The bus company has signed a cooperation agreement with the postal company, collecting delivery fees based on parcel volume and distance, with a portion going to drivers as incentives," said Liu Huan, deputy director of Jungar Banner's transport bureau.

Zhang Qiaohuan, 60, lives with her husband while their children work elsewhere. "In the past, picking up parcels meant traveling 40 kilometers to the township. Now it's wonderful — parcels come straight to the village. I even dare to order fresh fruit online, and it arrives fresh," Zhang said.

By the end of 2025, Jungar Banner had rolled out integrated passenger, cargo and postal services across 94 villages in seven towns and townships, handling an average of 4,000 parcels daily.

At 9:05 a.m., a bus arrived punctually at a store in Wangjia village, Xinxing town, Dawa district, Panjin, in northeast China's Liaoning Province. The driver unloaded more than a dozen parcels from various courier companies into the store. He also brought Chinese New Year goods the supermarket had ordered: rice gift boxes, salted duck eggs, pastries, frozen pears, strawberries and paper-cut window decorations.

Villagers collect parcels from a store in China. (Photo/Huang Haixin)

Zhou Ying, 53, has run this rural store for nine years. Since 2021, it has also functioned as a village-level courier station, part of a broader transport-postal cooperation scheme. Through Panjin's integrated urban-rural bus network, the "last kilometer" gap between town and village has been fully bridged.

"In the past, sending or receiving parcels meant going to the town 7 or 8 kilometers away," said 73-year-old villager Wang Yanqiu. "Now I've learned to shop online myself."

Since Zhou's store became a courier station, Zhou has noticed a clear increase in elderly villagers shopping online, like Wang Yanqiu.

Smooth logistics not only facilitate consumption but also open up sales channels.

Around midday, villager Zhao Rongjie delivered his rice for Zhou to package and ship. "During peak season, I send out more than a dozen parcels daily from the courier station," said Zhao. "Promoting through WeChat Moments brings customers from across the country. Prices are double what I'd get selling directly to merchants in town."

To support rural product distribution, Panjin Passenger Transport and Public Transport Group established an online platform showcasing and selling local specialty agricultural products, while regularly hosting livestream sessions at farms.

Zhou's store features a dedicated display shelf for local agricultural products, including rice from her own village and crown pears from the neighboring one. "Buses deliver parcels daily, greatly reducing inventory pressure," Zhou said.

The steady flow of villagers sending and receiving parcels has brought more customers through the door, and Zhou's store has thrived as a result. Adding courier station services alongside her product sales has grown overall revenue by 30 percent, she said.

At noon, at a farm in Qicun village, Beijing township, Linyi county, Yuncheng, in north China's Shanxi Province, manager Guo Liying enthusiastically promoted locally grown apples to her livestream audience. Behind her, more than a dozen workers busily packed bright red apples into boxes labeled with delivery addresses from across the country. In just half a day, the livestream generated over 30,000 yuan (about $4,300) in sales.

"We insist on livestreaming from the source, showing the entire process from picking to packaging transparently. We have many repeat customers," Guo said. Her annual sales cycle runs from late October through June of the following year.

A livestreamer promotes apples at an orchard in Qicun village, Beijing township, Linyi county, Yuncheng, north China's Shanxi Province. (Photo/Yang Hongwen)

The livestream e-commerce boom has directly benefited surrounding fruit farmers. Wang Guijie, a Qicun village resident in his 60s, tends 20 mu (about 1.33 hectares) of apple trees. In 2025, his orchard yielded more than 100,000 kilograms, most of which were sold nationwide through Guo's livestream sessions.

Linyi is a major fruit-producing county in Shanxi, with annual output of apples, winter jujubes, grapes and other fruits exceeding 5 billion kilograms. Seventy percent of the county's population is involved in fruit production, and the industry accounts for 70 percent of local farmers' income. To reach wider markets, Linyi began embracing e-commerce in 2015 and now has more than 1,000 e-commerce enterprises, employing over 60,000 people.

"From platform e-commerce to livestream sales, Linyi's e-commerce models continue to upgrade, attracting many young people to return home and start businesses," said Wei Rongping, president of the e-commerce chamber of commerce in Linyi county.

Guo represents one such success story. Over four years of entrepreneurship, her annual sales have grown from several million yuan to more than 20 million yuan.

"In 2025, the county's agricultural e-commerce sales reached 2.5 billion yuan, with livestream e-commerce accounting for a quarter," Wei said. Looking ahead, Linyi plans to leverage cross-border e-commerce platforms and China-Europe Railway Express routes to explore emerging markets in ASEAN and Central Asia.