This paper empirically evaluates the impact of a Government-Initiated Non-Profit Ecommerce Platform (GNEP) on specialty agricultural sales, focusing specifically on Pu’er tea in China. Using a difference-in-differences methodology and a comprehensive panel dataset that covers over 90% of local tea farmers, we uncover a marked substitution effect. The implementation of GNEP leads to an average decline of 11.22% in offline household sales, while online sales see an uptick of 16.88%. Further analysis confirms a universal channel shift from offline to online sales, irrespective of both production levels and tea quality. Contrary to expectations, the overall tea sales volume remains largely stable post-launch. Additionally, premium-quality teas experience a 2.42% price boost online, while regular teas show a 0.40% decrease compared to offline prices. Mechanism analyses further indicate that the increase in online sales is driven primarily by the intensive margin instead of the extensive margin. Although the platform does not significantly expand the number of farmers engaging in online sales, it succeeds in offering a cost-effective avenue for diversifying product offerings and achieving higher prices for premium-quality products. Our study illuminates the transformative role of e-commerce platforms in rural economic development and provides essential insights for policymakers and practitioners.

Using administrative universal business registration data as well as primary offline and online surveys of small businesses (including unregistered self-employments) in China, we examine (i) whether digitization helps small and medium enterprises (SMEs) better cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, and (ii) whether the pandemic has spurred digital technology adoption. We document significant economic benefits of digitization in increasing SMEs' resilience against such a large shock, as seen through mitigated demand decline, sustainable cash flow, ability to quickly reopen, and positive outlook for growth. Post the January 2020 lockdown, firm entries exhibited a V-shaped pattern, with entries of e-commerce firms experiencing a less pronounced immediate drop and a quicker rebound. Moreover, the pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation of existing firms and the industry in multiple dimensions (e.g., altering operation scope to include e-commerce, allowing remote work, and adopting electronic information systems). The effect persists more than one year after reopening, and is more pronounced for certain sectors, firms in industrial clusters, and areas with more digital inclusion but less financial efficiency, constituting initial evidence for the long-term impact of the pandemic and the supposedly transitory mitigation policies.