By Zhang Wei

Among all elements that boost domestic demand, internet has been playing an increasingly important role. Rooted in the "internet + domestic" demand model of the information era, internet is helping a large number of Chinese enterprises to transfer from overseas markets to the domestic market, and is helping to thoroughly release people's consumption potential in the process. From a long-term perspective, internet's penetration into traditional business model has just begun.

Here, we are going to present three cases of micro enterprises to our readers. These enterprises have all been successful in making use of internet opportunities to carry out innovative operation, tap potential of the consumption market, and achieve reform and upgrading. One of them is a conventional export enterprise succeeding in turning to the domestic market, one of them is a homegrown brand built by young entrepreneurs, and the other is a conventional enterprise managing to develop new market growth. All in all, they all succeed in making use of ecommerce to transform their business models.

Some experts used to claim that an important reason why Chinese enterprises had managed to grow rapidly for quite a long period of time since the beginning of the 21st century was China's accession to the WTO in 2001. It enables China to fully integrate itself into the global industrial chain and access domestic and international markets and resources.

However, the disadvantages of the model of "WTO + foreign demands" begin to loom. Excessive dependence on overseas market may easily result in unstable demands; low technology content and low-end orientation cause the brand-less and channel-less state of enterprises. In the international crisis, these problems have become more conspicuous. Many export enterprises, especially small- and medium-sized ones, are snookered and fail to find effective ways to explore the domestic market. Against the background, the report of CPC's 18th National Congress stresses that we should firmly maintain the strategic focus of boosting domestic demand, speeding up the establishment of a long-term mechanism for increasing consumer demand and unleashing the potential of individual consumption. This is of great significance for China to strategically adjust its economic structure and change its growth model.

From 2007 to 2011, China's total retail sales of social consumer goods grew from RMB 8.9 trillion Yuan to RMB 18.4 trillion Yuan, an annual growth of 19.9 percent averagely, marking one of China's fastest-growing phases since the opening-up and reform policy. We can see that among the elements that boost domestic demand internet has been playing an increasingly important role. The outburst of the online shopping market during the November 11 sales and Alibaba's announcement of Taobao's sales exceeding RMB 1 trillion Yuan have all reflected that. According to the prediction of international consulting agency IDC, by 2015, the transaction volume of China's online shopping would account for 7 percent of total retail sales of social consumer goods. Now, this prediction seems rather conservative.

Ecommerce can greatly promote innovation and even overturn traditional business model. Business model innovation on micro business level is an important momentum of the macro economy and an integral part of the economic growth model of a country. In today's examples we can see that the reason why internet can play an important role in helping enterprises to tap consumption potential is that it has advantages in such aspects as purchasing, production, marketing, and promotion that traditional business model can never rival: in marketing, the low-cost and cross-region characteristics of internet help to break the information asymmetry between the buyer and the seller and break the geological limit and time limit of sales; in production, internet helps enterprises to make use of the advantages of the traceability of data to moderate production procedure and achieve effective, individualized, and accurate interaction between producers and consumers. In short, the emergence of internet and ecommerce helps enterprises to search for sales channel, expand market, and understand the mindset of customers in a more convenient way and helps them to pair their production capacity that has been formed in the industrial era with the small-volume and individualized demands of the market.

The "internet + domestic demand" model rooted in the information era is helping a large number of Chinese enterprises to achieve the transformation from external sales to internal sales, thoroughly release consumption potential, and gradually promote the adjustment of China's economic structure and change of growth model. From a long-term perspective, internet's penetration into traditional business model has just begun. As cloud computing, big data, and other technologies mature, the business procedure of the traditional "industrial era" will be replaced by data-driven procedure, and more and more information-based commercial models and labor division systems will be established. This is a rare opportunity for the Chinese economy that is accelerating its strategic structure adjustment and change of growth model.