With this warehouse, "reverse overseas shopping" is even more popular

  Do you know what "reverse overseas shopping" is?

That is, overseas consumers buy goods made in China on cross-border e-commerce platforms.

From cosmetics and clothing to furniture and cars, there are more and more "Made in China" items in the "shopping cart" of foreigners.

"Reverse overseas shopping" is popular, how to ensure the timeliness of cross-border orders?

The overseas warehouse model of "before order is placed, goods first" has become an important booster for domestic products to "go global".

  The executive meeting of the State Council held a few days ago pointed out that it is necessary to "greater support for the construction of overseas warehouses".

Cross-border e-commerce, a new form of foreign trade, has developed rapidly in recent years. As an important overseas node of cross-border e-commerce and a new type of foreign trade infrastructure, overseas warehouses have played an active role in reducing costs and increasing efficiency and smoothing the foreign trade supply chain.

"The order is not placed, the goods are first", shortening the delivery time

  On September 21, Jalila, located in the Kingdom of Bahrain, received a HiBREW capsule coffee machine and a milk frother that she ordered online.

"I placed an order on the 19th and received the goods on the 21st. This capsule coffee machine is easy to use, and the coffee it makes does not lose its taste. I am very satisfied!" A week ago, Saleh in Saudi Arabia also received a HiBREW The espresso machine was also pleasantly surprised by the logistics service delivered within 2 days.

  "Both orders were shipped from overseas warehouses in Saudi Arabia and arrived at customers' homes within 2 days." Zeng Qiuping, head of HiBREW brand, told this reporter that the brand has been using overseas warehouses since July 2020. All over 12 countries and regions including Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Russia, Spain and France.

"In the past, we waited for the customer to place an order, and then sent it to the overseas by express delivery, which not only took a long time for logistics, but also had a high cost. Since we used the overseas warehouse, we first sent the goods to the overseas warehouse in bulk, and directly after the customer placed the order. Shipping from overseas warehouses has shortened the logistics time and better customer feedback. Since July 2020, our order volume has increased by 80%." Zeng Qiuping said.

  Overseas warehouse refers to the basic services such as cargo warehousing, transit, sorting, packaging, in-warehouse processing, and distribution, as well as order processing, customs processing, return and exchange for domestic manufacturers, brands, traders, logistics service providers, etc. established overseas. Warehousing facilities for value-added services such as goods, financing, and overseas distribution.

  According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, as of the end of last year, the number of China's overseas warehouses had exceeded 2,000, with an area of ​​more than 16 million square meters.

  "Overseas warehouses are not only a new form of my country's foreign trade, but also an important global infrastructure supporting new types of trade represented by cross-border e-commerce in the future." Li Mingtao, chief e-commerce expert of the China International E-commerce Center of the Ministry of Commerce, told this reporter that cross-border e-commerce The development of the e-commerce industry is inseparable from the strong support of the infrastructure of overseas warehouses.

A complete overseas warehouse service system can further enhance the service capabilities of cross-border e-commerce companies, especially their localization capabilities, provide overseas consumers and buyers with a more intimate service experience, while greatly reducing logistics and warehousing costs and improving cross-border e-commerce. core competitiveness of business enterprises.

  Fast delivery and convenient return and exchange are the main advantages of overseas warehouses.

Hong Yong, an associate researcher at the Institute of Electronic Commerce of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, told this reporter that overseas warehouses are established in the country where consumers are located, and merchants transport goods in bulk to overseas warehouses in advance. Greatly shortened delivery time.

Consumers can return goods directly to overseas warehouses. Compared with other return methods, overseas warehouse returns are also more convenient.

  This "orders are not placed, goods first" model will help alleviate the impact of the epidemic.

In Shenzhen, some cross-border e-commerce goods faced the problem of "going to sea" during the epidemic prevention period.

To this end, Shenzhen Customs has introduced a number of measures to encourage the development of overseas warehouses, including the filing of the overseas warehouse model, the unified processing of the document review business at the post office customs, and the "one-stop" centralized handling of the overseas warehouse model filing, etc., which shortens the time for business processing. In the first seven months of this year, the number of new overseas warehouse filing companies in Shenzhen Customs District increased by 2.5 times year-on-year.

More variety, more functions

  Since the beginning of this year, China's foreign trade has shown strong resilience.

From January to August, the total import and export volume of foreign trade reached 27.3 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.1%.

  "However, foreign trade still faces unfavorable factors such as the slowdown of external demand expansion and the difficulty of enterprises receiving orders." Assistant Minister of Commerce Li Fei said that at present, new foreign trade formats and models such as cross-border e-commerce and market procurement trade methods are still innovating In the window period of development, in the future, we will work with relevant departments to issue policies to support the development of cross-border e-commerce overseas warehouses as soon as possible, and support logistics companies, cross-border e-commerce platforms and large cross-border e-commerce sellers and other professional entities to build overseas warehouses.

  Different entities have their own priorities when building overseas warehouses.

According to Li Mingtao, logistics companies generally set up overseas warehouses from the perspective of third-party services to meet the exclusive needs of their own service customers and highlight the professional service capabilities of overseas warehouses.

Cross-border e-commerce platform companies set up overseas warehouses, more consideration for market layout, and focus on the market close to users.

The overseas warehouses of large cross-border e-commerce sellers focus on timely feedback of consumer information to manufacturers to achieve flexible manufacturing.

  The cross-border e-commerce platform AliExpress and Cainiao Logistics have built more than 20 overseas warehouses in 11 overseas countries and regions, with a total area of ​​more than 860,000 square meters.

In the European market, AliExpress can achieve 2-day delivery at the earliest, and in the second half of this year, it will achieve no more than 5-day delivery to core countries in Europe and the United States.

At the same time, relying on overseas warehouses, AliExpress can also provide consumers with a 15-day worry-free return and exchange service.

This year, AliExpress began to deploy in emerging markets with potential such as Mexico and Israel. By continuously expanding overseas warehouses, it helped cross-border merchants to solve the problems of slow cross-border logistics and high logistics costs.

  With the continuous strengthening of the state's support policy for overseas warehouses, various regions have provided "real money" to support the construction of overseas warehouses, not only the number of overseas warehouses has continued to increase, but also the functions have become more diverse.

  According to Li Mingtao, from the perspective of service content, in addition to basic warehousing services, overseas warehouses for cross-border e-commerce services generally provide basic services such as transit, sorting, packaging, in-warehouse processing, and distribution, as well as order processing and customs processing. , return, financing, overseas distribution and other value-added services.

In addition, in order to adapt to the characteristics of cross-border e-commerce sellers with complex goods and scattered orders, cross-border e-commerce overseas warehouses generally have online information service systems to achieve information synchronization with the e-commerce platform, and meet the needs of small batches of goods. Warehousing management requirements for batches.

  For the financing difficulties of small and medium-sized enterprises, overseas warehouses can also play a certain role.

Through the construction of overseas warehouses, Zongteng Group has mastered a large amount of information, and provides data docking services for both financing parties as a third party, helping cross-border e-commerce enterprises to reduce financing costs.

  "A group of excellent overseas warehouses are actively exploring informatization construction, intelligent development, diversified services, and localized operations, providing cross-border e-commerce sellers with warehousing operations, digital marketing, one-stop customs clearance, supply chain finance, cooperation Regulations consulting and other services." Hong Yong said.

Help SMEs find suitable overseas warehouses

  "The construction of overseas warehouses in countries along the 'Belt and Road' has created conditions for domestic brands such as HiBREW to 'go out'. HiBREW is now a well-known Chinese brand in the Middle East." Zeng Qiuping said.

  However, as a small and medium-sized enterprise, HiBREW still faces some difficulties in using overseas warehouses.

For example, the storage cost of overseas warehouses is relatively high, which increases the operating cost of the enterprise accordingly.

Some overseas warehouses are not strictly supervised, and parts are lost or damaged during the final delivery, which increases the after-sales cost of the company.

"North African countries have a large number of orders, such as Algeria, Morocco, etc., but we have not been able to find a corresponding overseas warehouse with tail-haul delivery capability." Zeng Qiuping said.

  "It is difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises to choose suitable overseas warehouses. Although the number and area of ​​overseas warehouses in my country have increased rapidly in recent years, there is still a big gap to fully meet the needs of fast-growing cross-border e-commerce overseas warehouses. Regional layout, use Cost, service content and continuous service capabilities of overseas warehouse operators are still difficult to adapt to the diversified needs of many cross-border sellers. If they choose to build their own or independently rent overseas warehouses, small and medium-sized enterprises will face more capital occupation, location selection and operational risks. Wait." Li Mingtao said.

  Li Mingtao suggested that on the one hand, the construction of public overseas warehouses should be further strengthened. Through government policy guidance and financial subsidies, a group of public overseas warehouses mainly serving small and medium-sized enterprises should be rapidly built, so as to expand the coverage of overseas warehouses and improve service capabilities.

On the other hand, strengthen the construction of a public platform for overseas warehouses serving SMEs, and focus on recommending a group of reliable and credible overseas warehouses to SMEs to reduce the risk of SMEs choosing overseas warehouses. The intelligent service level can better adapt to the diversified needs of overseas warehouses of small and medium-sized enterprises, help more "Made in China" products, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, to go abroad, so that more and more overseas consumers can more easily "reverse the sea". Amoy".

  Li Xingqian, director of the Department of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Commerce, said that in addition to encouraging different entities to jointly participate in the construction of overseas warehouses, the Ministry of Commerce will steadily promote the construction of standards, accelerate the formulation of established standards, and promote the formulation of a new batch of national, industry and group standards.

At the same time, promote the digital development of overseas warehouses, enrich and improve the construction of overseas smart logistics platforms, encourage qualified financial institutions to launch targeted financing and credit insurance products and services, and increase financial support for the construction of overseas warehouses.

  Xu Peiyu