Key Points
- China has released a comprehensive action plan to empower individually owned businesses (Geti Gongshanghu 个体工商户) by leveraging major platform enterprises.
- By 2027, the plan aims for “Five Batches” of deliverables, including targeted assistance, specialized merchant growth, and digital application scenarios.
- Platforms are encouraged to streamline market entry, offer significant fee reductions (e.g., ¥5,000-¥10,000 RMB off startup costs) for new merchants, and actively cultivate “Famous, Specialty, Excellent, New” merchants.
- Key strategies include providing compliance training (e.g., advertising, food safety, Zhishi Chanquan 知识产权) and leveraging Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (Rengong Zhineng 人工智能) for precise targeting and intelligent customer service.
- The plan involves coordination from local market supervision departments, the State Administration for Market Regulation (Guojia Shichang Jiandu Guanli Zongju 国家市场监督管理总局), and platform enterprises, with a focus on long-term policy support and incentivizing merchant success infrastructure.
- Launch targeted assistance programs for small merchants.
- Grow a cadre of high-quality specialty merchants.
- Create customized digital training courses.
- Build new digital application scenarios.
- Identify innovative case studies to replicate nationally.
China just released a major playbook for how platform enterprises should support small business owners.
The move is part of a broader national push to strengthen the private economy and keep employment stable.
Here’s what you need to know about this initiative—and why it matters for anyone building or investing in Chinese tech platforms.
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What’s Actually Happening Here?
The Chinese government just formalized a comprehensive action plan to help individually owned businesses (Geti Gongshanghu 个体工商户)—basically small shop owners and solo entrepreneurs—thrive on major platforms.
Think of it as a coordinated effort between the government and tech companies to level the playing field for mom-and-pop operations competing in the digital economy.
The goal?
Create win-win-win outcomes for platform enterprises, their on-platform merchants, and workers.
By 2027, China wants to achieve what they’re calling the “Five Batches” of deliverables:
- Launching targeted assistance programs
- Growing a cadre of high-quality specialty merchants
- Creating customized training courses
- Building new digital application scenarios
- Identifying innovative case studies to replicate
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The Core Strategy: Making It Easier to Start and Grow Small Businesses
Simplifying Market Entry
Platforms are now being encouraged to make onboarding dead simple.
This includes:
- Streamlining the signup process for new merchants
- Adding smarter onboarding tools to guide sellers through requirements
- Cutting down application review times
- Pushing digital business licenses instead of paper—faster verification, less friction
Interestingly, platforms are being nudged to incentivize informal online shop owners to officially register as individually owned businesses.
The incentive structure?
Formal registration gives you access to support programs you wouldn’t get as an informal operator.
Cutting Operating Costs for New Merchants
Here’s the concrete stuff that matters to early-stage sellers: fee reductions.
Platforms are being directed to offer meaningful discounts on:
- Commission rates
- Take rates
- Membership fees
- Technical service fees
- Information service fees
- Marketing and promotional fees
To put numbers on it: reducing startup costs from ¥5,000 RMB ($690 USD) to ¥10,000 RMB ($1,380 USD) can meaningfully ease the financial burden on new merchants during their critical launch phase.
The theory here is straightforward—lower barriers = more entries = more sellers thriving on the platform.
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Building Winners: The “Famous, Specialty, Excellent, New” Strategy
Once businesses are off the ground, the plan shifts toward cultivating standout merchants.
Platforms are being asked to identify and nurture what they’re calling “Famous, Specialty, Excellent, and New” (Ming Te You Xin 名特优新) sellers—basically businesses with unique products or strong market positioning.
These high-potential merchants get:
- Priority traffic allocation (better placement in search/recommendations)
- Fee waivers or reductions
- Logistics optimization help
- Differentiated support tailored to their niche
Targeting Industrial Clusters
Another smart piece of this puzzle: focusing on geographic clusters where lots of small businesses operate in the same industry.
The issues these clusters face are predictable:
- Fragmented supply chains
- High logistics costs eating into margins
- Weak marketing reach
Platforms are being incentivized to solve these problems at scale—matching resources, connecting sellers with better suppliers, and helping with collective marketing pushes.
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Leveling Up: Training and Capacity Building
Compliance Training
Small business owners often operate in gray areas simply because they don’t know the rules.
The plan addresses this with targeted training on:
- Advertising compliance—what claims you can legally make
- Food safety standards—critical for food & beverage sellers
- Intellectual property protection (Zhishi Chanquan 知识产权)—protecting your brand and fighting counterfeits
- Tax filing requirements—getting your paperwork straight
Plus, platforms are being asked to help standardize emerging categories like live-streaming e-commerce—a wild west where rules are still being written.
Market Competitiveness Training
Beyond compliance, merchants need business skills.
We’re talking:
- Understanding market trends and where demand is heading
- E-commerce strategy fundamentals
- Using digital tools effectively
- Measurement and quality standards
- Certification and industry best practices
The goal is one-stop infrastructure support that lets small sellers compete with bigger, more sophisticated retailers.
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The Tech Angle: AI and Data-Driven Empowerment
Smart Tools for Small Sellers
This is where it gets interesting for the tech stack.
Platforms are being encouraged to deploy Big Data (Da Shuju 大数据) and Artificial Intelligence (Rengong Zhineng 人工智能) tools to help small merchants:
- Precisely target customer groups using data insights
- Site selection optimization—where should this product be listed or marketed?
- Product selection assistance—what should I actually sell?
- Intelligent customer service—automating support without losing quality
The emphasis is on lightweight, low-cost tools—accessible to someone running a small shop, not requiring enterprise-level investment.
Protecting Quality and Authenticity
Working with the “National Development Network for Individually Owned Businesses,” platforms are being asked to showcase premium products through public welfare initiatives.
Simultaneously, intellectual property enforcement is getting stricter to combat counterfeits—protecting both sellers’ brands and consumer trust.
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Building the Ecosystem: Innovation and Collaboration
Local Innovation Programs
The national plan isn’t one-size-fits-all.
Provincial market supervision departments are encouraged to collaborate with platforms and create region-specific initiatives tailored to local business landscapes.
Support Infrastructure
Several concrete initiatives are being rolled out:
- “National Individually Owned Business Service Month”—a coordinated resource pooling event
- “Ask-About-Needs Service” run by the China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment (Zhongguo Geti Lao Dong Zhe Xie Hui 中国个体劳动者协会)—directly understanding what sellers actually need
- Learning from successful models like Zhejiang’s “Large Enterprises Helping Small Shops” program to replicate proven approaches
The idea is building an actual collaborative ecosystem where bigger players help smaller ones succeed.
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Who’s Responsible for Making This Happen?
Execution matters more than strategy.
Here’s the breakdown:
- Local market supervision departments tailor and implement measures based on regional conditions
- The State Administration for Market Regulation (Guojia Shichang Jiandu Guanli Zongju 国家市场监督管理总局) leads overall coordination, tracks progress, and publishes annual reports
- Platform enterprises actually deploy the programs and tools
Annual progress reports will showcase what’s working and help spread proven approaches across regions.
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What This Means for Investors, Founders, and Platform Builders
If you’re building or investing in Chinese e-commerce platforms, this is a significant policy tailwind.
The government is essentially incentivizing platforms to invest in small merchant success—which drives marketplace health, transaction volume, and long-term retention.
The timeline matters too: 2027 is the target for hitting these “Five Batches” of deliverables, so we’re looking at a 3-4 year implementation window.
This suggests sustained policy focus and likely ongoing refinements as regional pilots reveal what actually works.
For platform enterprises navigating this, the message is clear: invest in merchant success infrastructure, get ahead of compliance requirements, and build tools that genuinely reduce friction for small sellers.
The government is explicitly asking for this—and will be tracking results.
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