For Cheng Yuezhu, a 28-year-old from Shanghai, the Greenland Global Commodity Trading hub in the city is where she shops twice a week.

The hub, which opened in November 2018, is one of the 56 trading platforms in Shanghai that extend the services of the China International Import Expo for exhibitors to display and sell their products through the year, in addition to the expo period. It houses 176 companies from 70 countries and regions this year and showcases goods in over 10 categories including handicrafts, jewelry and beverages. Over 90 percent of the companies in the hub are also expo participants.

"It is a place where I will check off all the right boxes on my shopping list, whether it is for clothing, food or housekeeping," Cheng said, adding that makeup and snacks are the items purchased frequently.

"A wide variety of products at the hub are rarely seen in other stores. For instance, I have bought soaps made in Syria and Turkey as well as purses from Argentina, which are CIIE exhibits."

Yang Xiaoxiong, a 35-year-old customer from Shanghai at the hub, said some of the products that are available are ideal for corporate gifting or for clients at work.

"Gift boxes are available at each store at reasonable prices and quality guaranteed," he said.

According to Xue Yingjie, general manager of Greenland Global Commodity Trading Center Group, the total value of the goods traded at the hub has exceeded 50 billion yuan ($7.5 billion) during the last three years.

"The hub has become first choice for customers to purchase global products and a domestic window for further opening-up to the world," Xue said.

Around 90 retail stores have also been established in 23 cities such as Tianjin and Heilongjiang province's Harbin.

"We hope to build the hub into a 'transit station' for overseas high-quality resources to enter Chinese market, facilitating international small and medium-sized manufacturers and retailers to explore trading opportunities in China," he said.

Orient International, a Shanghai-based enterprise operating another trading platform Hongqiao Import Commodity Exhibition and Trading Center, plans to extend the services of the 365-day trading platforms to more regions outside Shanghai.

According to Tong Jisheng, president of Orient International, the company has established six sub-centers in cities like Zhejiang province's Hangzhou and Anhui province's Hefei.

"We expect to expand the scale to 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta in the future," he said.

He said nine distribution centers for imported goods in Asia will be set up in the second phase of the center that is under construction.