Hangzhou foreign trade companies are making use of a cross-border e-commerce platform to boost business amid the current worldwide pandemic.

Since Alibaba's international station was first launched in March, a growing number of businessmen have visited the company's trade website.

As of March 15, the number of visitors to the website had grown 31 percent over the same period last year, the number of active members had increased 47 percent year on year, and the number of buyers had increased by 46 percent year on year.

Shu Changjian, a foreign trade salesman at Hangzhou Hua'an Medical and Heath Instruments Co Ltd, said that he has been packaging medical instruments and sending them to a client in the UK.

He added that it took less than 10 days from when the initial deals were made at the international station of Alibaba to when the goods were finally delivered.

The process used to take more than two months, Shu said.

Hangzhou Hua'an Medical and Heath Instruments Co Ltd opened two accounts on the international station of Alibaba and appointed six salesmen to run them.

The salesmen were tasked with screening and selecting high-quality clients engaged in the distribution of medical facilities.

Another company, Hangzhou Kuangs Textile Co Ltd, has also benefited from the cross-border foreign trade platform provided by Alibaba.

Since the launch of the international station, the textile company has received $1 billion in new orders.

The company first got involved in cross-border e-commerce early in 2013. Last year, the company made 650 million yuan ($91.59 million) in sales, 90 percent of which was attributed to cross-border e-commerce, according to Kuang Feng, general manager of the company.