Auto & Transportation

Under the epidemic situation, the cross-border e-commerce "delivery" business was affected, and the overseas warehouse model was favored by the market. According to the observation report of Huacheng import and export data, in the first seven months, the number of new overseas warehouse filing enterprises in Shenzhen Customs increased 2.7 times year on year, and the export of overseas warehouses supervised by the customs also doubled rapidly year on year.

As an important overseas node of cross-border e-commerce, overseas warehouses have the advantages and characteristics of improving the efficiency of goods entering and leaving the country, shortening the delivery time, improving the turnover speed, shortening the service cycle, and significantly reducing costs. But at the same time, the overseas warehouse mode also requires cross-border e-commerce sellers to have strong financial strength and precise market control.

As a new type of foreign trade infrastructure, Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation reported that by December 2021, the number of overseas warehouses in China had exceeded 2000, with a total area of more than 16 million square meters. Among them, the total number of overseas warehouses in North America, Europe, Asia and other regions accounts for nearly 90%.

At present, the full business model of cross-border e-commerce in Shenzhen Comprehensive Pilot Zone has also been fully implemented. According to incomplete statistics, by the end of December 2021, Shenzhen enterprises had built and operated more than 230 cross-border e-commerce overseas warehouses, with a construction area of more than 2.6 million square meters.

Against the trend, the advantages of overseas warehouse are highlighted

Since the epidemic in 2020, overseas warehouses have gradually come into the public's view. A large number of enterprises are constrained by the contraction of logistics channels. Overseas warehouses have become one of the important strategic links for cross-border e-commerce enterprises to break through.

"In early 2020, the epidemic will have a great impact on cross-border e-commerce, especially when a large number of export sellers have" orders but no goods to sell ", so the demand for overseas warehouses is growing." Xing Kangnan, deputy secretary-general of Shenzhen Cross border E-Commerce Association and president of the Policy Research Institute, said to First Finance and Economics that in the long run, the global economic situation is declining, the epidemic situation is repeatedly superimposed and the international situation continues to evolve. These factors will have a greater impact on the supply of products. Overseas warehouses can better solve the inventory problem in the destination market. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

"The application of the overseas warehouse model has played an important role in the process of cross-border e-commerce brands going to sea." The person in charge of the logistics business department of Aoji Technology said to First Finance and Economics that for cross-border e-commerce enterprises with a large scale, the overseas warehouse model can significantly reduce logistics costs, improve logistics efficiency, optimize user experience, help enterprises expand their overseas market share, and promote their brands to the world.

Zhang Xin, the general manager of Shenzhen Kaling Biotechnology Co., Ltd., also said in an interview with First Finance that stocking up in overseas warehouses can ensure that products can be delivered to consumers in a timely manner, and consumers can return and replace products more easily and quickly.

Globally, as an important overseas node of cross-border e-commerce, the number and scale of overseas warehouses are also growing. In 2021, the number of overseas warehouses in China will exceed 2000, and the total area of overseas warehouses will exceed 16 million square meters.

At the beginning of 2022, the "Fourteenth Five Year" Digital Economy Development Plan issued by the State Council also clearly mentioned that it is necessary to cultivate and expand a number of overseas warehouse leading enterprises, and build a cross-border e-commerce industry chain and ecosystem.

Xing Kangnan said that in the future, there will be more and more overseas warehouses in the world. With the intensification of competition in the European and American markets, overseas warehouses in countries along the "the Belt and Road" will become a new strategic layout. In particular, the conclusion of the regional comprehensive economic partnership agreement (RCEP) will generate a large number of high-quality overseas warehouse enterprises in this region.

Supply chain service or failure point of overseas warehouse

Although there are various opportunities, the problems arising from the development of overseas warehouses cannot be ignored. After experiencing explosive growth in 2020, the cross-border e-commerce industry is still faced with compliance problems, external demand contraction, offline liberalization and other practical changes, which also pose new challenges to the development of overseas warehouses.

In 2021, most domestic logistics enterprises, e-commerce platforms and other overseas warehouse service enterprises will choose mature markets such as Europe, America and Japan to expand and build warehouses. The density of overseas warehouses in European and American markets has been relatively high, and the competition situation has become increasingly obvious.

Alibaba's fledgling overseas warehouse network has been launched in more than 20 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Vietnam, Australia and Russia. In addition, including overseas warehouses, bonded warehouses, GFC warehouses, etc., Cainiao has more than 100 cross-border warehouses serving import and export trade, covering more than 30 countries and regions in Asia, Europe and America, with a total area of 3 million square meters.

Since 2020, JD has established its own overseas warehouses in the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Vietnam, Malaysia and other countries. By June 2022, the area of JD's self operated overseas warehouses had increased by 100% year on year.

It is worth noting that, as the impact of the epidemic on the economy gradually weakens, offline retail gradually normalizes, and the demand of buyers drops, a large number of warehouse construction and warehouse expansion may make heavy assets a burden, and the competition between overseas warehouses will become increasingly fierce.

Although the overseas warehouse mode has significant advantages over the self delivery mode, the threshold of the overseas warehouse mode is high. Small and medium-sized cross-border e-commerce sellers often do not easily try a lot, but still choose the self delivery mode.

The person in charge of a small and medium-sized cross-border e-commerce company in Shenzhen told China First Finance that the company plans to reduce overseas warehouses and increase self delivery in the future. "Many enterprises like us have also reduced the layout of overseas warehouses this year. Because overseas warehouses need sufficient inventory, and there is uncertainty in market demand, it will take up a lot of funds, and enterprises need to take more risks. It is worth taking risks only when they can obtain high profits."

From the perspective of transformation, for sellers who have capital advantages and can build their own warehouses, the threshold for overseas warehouse operation is also high. It is feasible for sellers to build their own warehouses in the short term, but from the perspective of long-term development, capital, talent and professionalism will inevitably become the pressure for enterprise development.

At the same time, there are great differences in construction standards, technical level, logistics services, compliance services, operation services, etc. of overseas warehouses of various enterprises. The operation efficiency of some small and medium-sized overseas warehouses is low, the degree of standardization of compliance services is low, the function of the information system is not perfect, there is a lack of professional after-sales services and overseas operation teams, and the wrong delivery, missing delivery and loss of goods often occur. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

Li Cong, vice president of Zongteng Group, said in an interview with First Finance, "In order to lay out overseas warehouses, in addition to certain financial strength, it also requires high requirements for operation and management capabilities. Professional service management matching with vertical categories is also a major management problem facing overseas warehouse service providers."

In Li Cong's opinion, the development of overseas warehouse is no longer a simple logistics product service, but a whole supply chain service. He believes that the competition of overseas warehouse enterprises in the future will continuously raise the threshold of scale advantage and professional service advantage. The demand for supply chain services derived from this new business model is real and has a lot of room for development.

In Li Cong's opinion, the transformation to the supply chain side is not based on the temporary change of market hot spots, nor is it a short-term demand adjustment, but is required by the long-term directional trend of Chinese brands going to sea and cross-border trade. "The upgrade will not only help us get rid of some relatively low-end vicious competition, but also help establish our industry threshold and provide more valuable services."

In the face of the existing problems of overseas warehouses, Li Cong believes that overseas warehouses should not only go out, but also improve their internal operation and management capabilities. Enterprises should develop in the direction of intellectualization and specialization. In the future, overseas warehouses will gradually change from labor-intensive to technology intensive and capital intensive.

Xing Kangnan also told First Finance that with the increase of the number of overseas warehouses, according to the business logic, the service requirements for overseas warehouses will also be improved. The function of overseas warehouse is not limited to the traditional logistics storage capacity. The requirements of digitalization and informatization will become higher and higher, and its capacity requirements will become more complex and diversified.

The person in charge of the logistics business department of Aoji Technology also said that the future development mode of overseas warehouse is not only as a carrier of goods storage, but also needs to be combined with the industry development, transformation and upgrading. For example, we optimize customer inventory through big data stocking, use intelligent systems for in warehouse management, superimpose digital logistics tracking, etc., improve the information management level of overseas warehouse enterprises, achieve digital management of the whole process of overseas warehouse, and maximize the advantages of overseas warehouse mode. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.