According to the latest data of the General Administration of Customs of China, 2.45 billion import and export lists will be released through the customs cross-border e-commerce management platform in 2020, up 63.3% year on year. With the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce, Chinese enterprises speed up the construction of cross-border logistics system including overseas warehouses. At present, the number of overseas warehouses has exceeded 1800, which has become a new foreign trade infrastructure to support the development of cross-border e-commerce and expand the international market.

Cross border logistics docking with local distribution

The recently released "Blue Book of cross border e-commerce: China's cross border e-commerce development report (2020)" pointed out that the scale of China's cross border e-commerce market is expected to reach 280 billion yuan in 2020, and continue to achieve leaping growth. The rapid development of cross-border e-commerce has given birth to the diversified development needs of cross-border logistics. Overseas warehouse is not only the product of cross-border e-commerce and cross-border logistics, but also the general trend of logistics industry in the era of cross-border e-commerce.

In 2012, seeing the cross-border e-commerce logistics business opportunities, Ouyang Ke, a Chinese businessman who has long been engaged in the logistics industry, established Royal Logistics Co., Ltd. in Shenzhen with his British partner Murphy to deliver goods to the world. Since opening its first overseas warehouse in the UK in April 2014, the company has established overseas warehouses in dozens of countries in Europe, Asia, America and other regions.

"It usually takes about a month to deliver goods from China to the UK by traditional logistics. Today, British consumers can receive Chinese goods within two days through overseas warehouses set up by Chinese companies. The form of overseas warehouse enhances the advantages of China's logistics distribution. " In Murphy's view, in addition to the advantage of timeliness, the batch import of overseas warehouses can save the value-added tax and import duties of high-value products, and also help customers handle returns. Under the background of fierce competition of e-commerce, there is no doubt that return guarantee can establish a better brand image for sellers.

"During the period of epidemic prevention and control, the advantage of overseas warehouse is prominent, because there are sufficient goods in advance, and the local logistics can carry out distribution faster." Ouyang can say that Chinese e-commerce can upload orders online and seamlessly connect with local English systems. With the help of overseas warehouse, a complete set of international logistics solutions make cross-border shopping more efficient, from procurement, export tax rebate, import declaration agency, overseas warehousing to the final integration of local logistics delivery. He believes that overseas warehouses are committed to reducing costs, improving distribution efficiency and providing one-stop solutions, which will help solve the "last mile" distribution problem of Chinese products in overseas markets.

Optimize the shopping experience of overseas consumers

In view of the need to store more vegetables and go out less during the period of epidemic prevention and control, Leticia, a housewife living in the suburb of Madrid, Spain, recently planned to buy a double door refrigerator. After comparison, she found that refrigerators in local shopping malls are expensive, and they have to pay extra freight for home delivery. On a Chinese cross-border e-commerce platform, a double door refrigerator only sells for 399 euros and is delivered free of charge. Leticia thinks it is very suitable. The day after the order was placed, the refrigerator was delivered to her door, and Leticia was surprised.

Zhou Yan, head of the supply chain of the Spanish station of the e-commerce overseas warehouse, said that they have two official overseas warehouses in Spain, and more than 10 third-party cooperative overseas warehouses. Their products have reached "3 days" in Spain, France and Poland, and "7 days" in Pan European region. Based on overseas warehouses, after-sales services such as goods return and maintenance are also undertaken locally, which optimizes the shopping experience of local consumers.

Lazanda is one of the largest online shopping websites in Southeast Asia. In March 2020, it added overseas warehouse service in Indonesia. Radna, an Indonesian girl who likes online shopping, said: "the quality and price of online shopping goods are good. The most important thing is fast delivery."

On the website of Guangzhou sumiaotianxia Technology Co., Ltd., a customer commented on the logistics service after purchasing the wireless headset: "timely delivery, fast arrival and good packaging." Lin Yazhi, the founder of the company, said that in the first half of 2020, the sales volume of its Japanese overseas warehouses more than doubled, and currently, epidemic prevention products have become the best-selling products.

Enhance the competitiveness of foreign trade enterprises

The establishment of overseas warehouse directly shortens the distance between Chinese sellers and foreign customers, promotes the overseas marketing of Chinese goods, and effectively improves the global competitiveness of made in China.

Take the overseas sales of Jiannuo electric balance car as an example. Since the opening of the Spanish overseas warehouse in June 2019, the overall stocking cost of the product has decreased by 15%, and the logistics cost of a single product has decreased by about 20%. The distribution cycle has been shortened from 45 days of cross-border delivery to 24 hours of local delivery in Spain, and 5 to 7 days of Pan European delivery. The distribution business performance has also increased more than three times.

Aosen e-commerce, headquartered in Ningbo, is mainly engaged in indoor home, outdoor rattan weaving, sports fitness, baby products, pet products and other products. Relying on the mode of "cross border e-commerce + overseas warehouse", the net profit in the first three quarters of last year alone was 248.6 million yuan, up 1936.4% year on year.

"Traditionally, cross-border e-businesses deliver goods according to orders, while overseas warehouses build a closed loop of local supply." Zhou Yan said that under the current situation, overseas warehouses have actively played a regulatory role in stabilizing and unblocking the supply chain of the industrial chain. In addition, some Chinese e-businesses help small and medium-sized e-businesses in their countries to accelerate their development by building overseas warehouses.

Nowadays, overseas warehouse has become an important link and service support for the development of cross-border e-commerce. In the future, overseas warehouses will make in-depth exploration in information construction, intelligent development, diversified services and localized operation to help Chinese products better enter the global market.

(by Yuan Jirong, Qiang Wei, Jiang Bo, Xu Wei and Liu Junguo)