"A cloth wardrobe of about 10 kilograms, if shipped from the domestic direct mail to the United States, you need three or four hundred dollars of freight, you can pass the overseas warehouse, the average shipping cost is only two yuan, even if the foreign shipping fee is far lower than the direct mail. "This is an account of Lai Shui, the vice chairman of Quanzhou Jiashibi Furniture Co., Ltd. in Fujian Province. Since last year, the company has opened cross-border e-commerce business and built overseas warehouses in New Jersey, USA.

Dongfeng, which is a cross-border e-commerce company, is based on overseas warehouses like Home World. There are not many companies that expand international business. Relying on "overseas direct sales, local distribution", many companies no longer wait for orders to come to the door, but calmly attack and send domestic goods to foreign customers. While overseas warehouses support the domestic brands to go out, they have gradually grown into a logistics brand for overseas.

1. Open the "last mile"

Mr. Hao is the owner of a foreign trade business in Shenzhen. He has to ship from Shenzhen to the whole world every day. In recent years, the booming overseas cross-border e-commerce has brought good benefits to Mr. Hao’s company, but every time When he went to "logistics," he couldnt help but frown.

“Overseas logistics takes a long time and costs are high. At the same time, the transparency of the international logistics market is very low, and it is easy to cause disputes.” Mr. Hao said.

In his view, domestic products are not lacking in "selling points", but logistics has become a major "pain point" that plagues the foreign trade industry. According to estimates, Chinas average exporter of electricity e-commerce has two-thirds of customer service personnel in the processing of logistics consulting and logistics disputes. The loss of export sellers due to logistics causes tens of millions of dollars or even billions of dollars per year.

For this reason, overseas warehouses that are committed to reducing logistics costs, improving distribution efficiency, and providing one-stop solutions have emerged. Overseas warehouses are generally set up by logistics companies or cross-border export enterprises, which can send goods to foreign warehouses in batches to achieve overseas direct sales and local distribution.

In a sense, the overseas warehouse solved the problem of the “last mile” of domestic cargo going to sea. Take Russia as an example. At present, China has gradually become a popular choice for the Russian e-commerce market. According to the survey, 61% of Russian netizens have experience in online shopping in China. However, as the worlds largest country, spanning nine time zones, Russias logistics facilities are relatively old, and it is common for parcels to be frozen in the customs for a month or two.

Overseas warehouses provide an effective way to solve this problem. For example, SF Express has set up an “Eastern European Warehouse” overseas, which has already covered Russia, Finland, Norway, Sweden and other countries. After the Russian consumers place an order, the goods can be directly shipped from the “Eastern European Warehouse”, which will be the original cross-border. Logistics is transformed into local distribution.

For Mr. Hao, the overseas warehouse has reduced a large amount of transportation time, improved the distribution efficiency, and opened up the “last mile” of domestic products overseas. “Overseas warehouses have greatly shortened the delivery cycle and improved the quality of after-sales service, effectively enhancing the brand image of domestic products, and also earning a good reputation for Chinese businesses.” Mr. Hao said.

2, not just "warehouses"

Enter the official website of the logistics platform "Rookie Network", click on "Worry-Free Logistics" in the "Cross-border Network" section, and you will be greeted by the quotation of goods shipped to more than 200 countries and regions around the world. If you spend tens of dollars to hundreds of yuan, you can send more than 1 kilogram of items abroad.

Corresponding to the convenience of domestic export logistics, overseas customers can more easily receive items purchased on the Chinese e-commerce platform. In September this year, the rookie network just announced the opening of an overseas warehouse in the Spanish capital Madrid, which will be delivered within 72 hours of Spain. After the opening of the Madrid warehouse, the domestic merchants can use the self-delivery or the rookie partner to receive the domestic rookie warehouse, and then the rookie partner will deliver the corresponding overseas transportation by express, air, land, rail, sea and other international modes of transportation. Warehouse, logistics information will be available on the rookies global logistics tracking platform.

In the eyes of many people, overseas warehouses are warehouses that store goods in bulk outside the country, but this is far from the truth. Since its inception, overseas warehouses have been characterized as an optimization and integration model for existing cross-border logistics and transportation solutions. In the cross-border e-commerce business, Chinese companies pre-stock the overseas target market through market research and big data calculation, and then hand it over to the logistics companies such as rookie and SF, and deliver the goods to overseas through sea, air or express delivery. Warehouses are warehousing, and when overseas users place orders, local direct delivery can be achieved. Therefore, behind the physical warehouse, the overseas warehouse is more tested by the level of Chinas logistics industry in smart technology and modern management, which has become the epitome of the development and upgrading of the domestic logistics industry.

Today, Chinas overseas warehouses have expanded from service e-commerce to various industries, and have blossomed more and more globally. It is understood that China Post has opened warehouse operations in the United States, Britain, Germany and Australia. It can select the corresponding goods according to the sellers order, deliver the goods within 24 hours, and support the return and exchange. The delivery service of rookie worry-free logistics has spread to more than 200 countries and regions in Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Spain and other countries. Logistics companies such as SF, Yuantong and Shentong have also set up overseas warehouses to expand their international business. According to incomplete statistics, more than 200 companies in China have set up overseas warehouses overseas, with more than 500 overseas warehouses.

3. Stand on the cross-border e-commerce outlet

Today, cross-border e-commerce is in the ascendant. In March this year, according to the General Administration of Customs, China’s cross-border e-commerce exports increased by 4.9 times in 2015. Being in the development turmoil, the role of overseas warehouses in the "pivot" of Chinas export trade is becoming more and more obvious.

According to data from eBay, a cross-border e-commerce platform, Chinese sellers using overseas warehouses on the platform are exponentially increasing. Among Chinese sellers with annual sales exceeding US$100,000, in the fourth quarter of 2014, approximately 32% of sellers used overseas warehouses, and by the same period in 2015, this proportion had increased to over 70%. At the same time, from the sales situation, 80% of the trading volume of the platform is completed through overseas warehouses.

Peng Xiao, director of the Greater China Region of Yibei.com, said that in the past, cross-border e-commerce was generally affected by direct mail. Chinese sellers were mainly individuals, and the products sold were generally lighter and smaller. After using the overseas warehouse to solve the logistics problem, the goods are basically no limit, and more and more brands and factories enter the industry.

In response to the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce, more and more Chinese companies have begun to set up overseas warehouses through self-built or leased to improve delivery efficiency and enhance user experience. China Post is actively launching its layout. On the basis of existing overseas warehouses, it is accelerating the overseas warehouse layout in Europe, Japan and Australia. SF plans to build 20 warehouses around the world, covering major target markets such as North America and Europe. At the same time, in the context of the “Belt and Road Initiative”, domestic products have begun to show synergies and accelerate the development of overseas warehouses. For example, every Wednesday and Friday, from Wuhan, the “Hanxin Europe” class scheduled to be sent to Europe, it is planned to choose suitable locations in Russia, Belarus, Germany, Iran and other countries to build logistics parks and overseas warehouses. The capacity of container allocation and transshipment outside the country is to promote the interconnection of China-EU logistics trade.

At the same time, in the top-level design, the introduction of a series of policies also indicates that the overseas warehouse construction will accelerate in the future. This years "Government Work Report" pointed out that "encourage business model innovation. Expand cross-border e-commerce pilots and support enterprises to build a batch of export products overseas warehouses." The “Internet + Circulation” Action Plan released by the Ministry of Commerce in 2015 also proposes to promote the construction of 100 e-commerce “outside warehouses”.

However, the overseas warehouse business still in the groping stage still faces many problems. At the policy level, overseas warehouses are an emerging logistics model. There are no explicit provisions in the bilateral trade provisions between China and other countries. Therefore, overseas warehouses are vulnerable to local policies and market conditions. For example, in Russia, because there is no bonded warehouse, overseas warehouse goods must be processed according to general trade when they enter Russia, which requires tariffs and value-added tax, which brings greater tax burden on overseas warehouse goods. In the actual transaction process, the overseas warehouse business also has the problem that the cross-border payment channel is not smooth. At present, China does not have a special cross-border payment license, and most of the existing cross-border third-party payment platforms only support international credit card payments such as Visa and Mastercard. Chinas payment instruments cannot be recognized overseas, which hinders overseas warehouses from landing overseas. .

In the eyes of the industry, if overseas warehouses want to stand firm in the long run, they must overcome the above difficulties and build an efficient and accurate logistics system through intelligent management and refined services. Only in this way can we allow overseas warehouses to promote the domestic brands to the world, and at the same time, they will become their own overseas logistics brands.