Wish has long used ordinary mail and low-priced parcels as its main channel, and its logistics problems have been overshadowed by its rapid development. But now the number of Wish sellers is already very large. In recent years, in order to get rid of the low-threshold image of low-priced products and low-end logistics, Wish has undergone a rather drastic transformation, with frequent new policies on traffic acquisition, quality control, category structure, and logistics optimization. Since its company switched from offline to online in 2019, WishPost, or “Wish Post”, is the only direct mail online delivery platform recognized by the Wish platform. It integrates the products of recognized logistics service providers into the WishPost logistics system. Through official direct docking, merchants no longer need to operate the logistics system of logistics providers or cargo providers. The corresponding logistics channel providers will provide merchants with parcel collection and transportation services, and can place orders for online logistics, settle fees online, and track logistics status to ensure that the logistics track of the order is fully captured, thereby effectively reducing the refund rate caused by logistics. In fact, the original WishPost was a Wish-exclusive online cross-border direct mail product jointly launched by Wish and China Post. It provides merchants with a dedicated parcel service in the collection warehouse and enjoys various preferential measures and resource support from the post office.
The development of many cross-border platforms is inseparable from the early cultivation of the postal service, because in the initial stage of the e-commerce platform, most sellers are doing direct delivery from China, and the postal parcel has the lowest cost of direct delivery. However, since ordinary mail cannot bring benefits to foreign postal services, foreign post offices often deal with such parcels passively, and give priority to delivering other types of parcels. Therefore, most ordinary mail parcels do not have overseas tracking information, and the delivery rate and delivery time are very low, resulting in a lot of disputes over receipt. Usually, it takes 15 to 30 days to deposit for orders on e-commerce platforms. If ordinary mail is sent, the payment period will be longer. In order to upgrade online delivery, Wish uses a dynamic comparison and elimination mechanism to select better logistics service providers and products for merchants, so as to better improve the quality of logistics and avoid merchants violating logistics distribution policies.
Wish provides test operation assessment. To become a logistics service provider recognized by it, it is necessary to achieve timely delivery in the first kilometer, logistics tracking, and delivery within 30 days. In order to encourage merchants to ship online, Wish has preferential policies such as 20% advance payment for orders from designated logistics channels to Europe and the United States, and exemption from liability for delivery rate. However, if the logistics channels listed on WishPost are not integrated, the offline shipments of merchants will not be exempted by the policy. The process is similar to eDIS. After registering a WishPost account and binding the merchant ID, selecting a logistics channel to create an order, and completing the package customs declaration and other information, the merchant will notify the logistics company to collect the order after the order is packed, and can track the platform or the logistics company’s official website. In terms of logistics fee settlement, one is that the shipper settles with the logistics company offline or monthly, and the platform only provides online shipping tools; the other is the prepaid system, the seller must first recharge the WishPost account and ensure sufficient funds, and then the platform will settle with the logistics company. Prepaid shipment is equivalent to part of the seller’s funds being pressed on logistics, and WishPost will have certain unified signing discounts.
EPC (Export Process Center) is an innovative export processing center order consolidation service of Wish, which consolidates and delivers the goods purchased by the same buyer across stores. Wish found that when the same user purchased products from different sellers’ stores, each seller would first send them to Wish Shanghai EPC Processing Center for packaging and processing, and then use higher-level logistics products to send them to users. According to Wish’s official calculations, the use of EPC services can speed up loan release, and the combined logistics costs are 2.47 yuan less than the same channels on the market. While reducing costs, the parcel delivery rate and refund rate are significantly better than ordinary direct mail logistics. In terms of speed, Wish has also launched “Wish Da” and “Ansu Pai” and other “collection warehouse + port direct flight” logistics products.
Wish provides sellers using overseas warehouses with traffic support, accelerated payment, rebate and other incentive policies, stipulating that if merchants promise to deliver packages to users within 5 working days, their stores will receive additional traffic. Wish’s overseas warehouses are divided into two categories: WE (Wish Express) and FBW (Fulfilment By Wish). WE is a time-limited delivery plan for a single product to a single country. It requires that the order must be fulfilled within 5 days and the on-time arrival rate must be 95%. Usually, only overseas warehouses can fulfill this delivery commitment. Because of the stringent logistics standards, Wish will tilt up to 10 times the traffic for WE, of which WE contributes about 20% of the platform’s traffic. For example, WE orders to Brazil must be confirmed as delivered by the logistics company within 10 working days, otherwise the order will not be paid back; if the merchant’s on-time arrival rate is less than 90% during the assessment period, it will lose WE qualification. Through the WE warehouse tool, merchants can manage product inventory and select warehouses for shipment. The “address verification” function provided by the platform can verify the remote delivery address of the order, and the order delivery time limit can be extended.
FBW is an upgraded European and American warehouse distribution service provided by the Wish platform. Order execution and logistics are completely handled by FBW-certified overseas warehouses. Sellers who enter the FBW overseas warehouse officially certified by Wish enjoy various traffic support and policy preferences such as deduction of merchant account release time. User refunds caused by logistics loss/damage/delay are 100% compensated by the Wish platform. The core SOP indicators of FBW are 24-hour listing, 24-hour delivery, and 7-10 working days to complete the delivery. The warehousing and logistics costs are deducted from the merchant’s backend balance. The settled products are usually general goods. Special goods such as charged, liquid, powder, etc. are not accepted. Samples are provided before the goods enter the warehouse, and product information is submitted to the backend for review. It is necessary to provide packaging that can be directly transported, and each SKU needs to be affixed with a barcode, outer box barcode, packing list, and self-delivery to the warehouse. As an innovation of cross-border 020, FBS (Fulfillment By Store) is an extension of FBW. FBS allows products to be sold in offline physical stores. Products are not only stored in FBW warehouses, but also in self-pickup physical stores that cooperate with Wish.